A CENTURY OF DISHONOR

CONTENTS.

PREFACE, BY BISHOP WHIPPLE .................................. y

INTRODUCTION, BY PRESIDENT JULIUS H. SEELYE ................... 1

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY ............................................... 9

CHAPTER IT.
THE DELAWARES. . . -. ......................................... 82

CHAPTER IH.
THE CHEYENNES .............................................. 66

CHAPTER IV.
THE NEZ PERCES ............................................. 103

CHAPTER V.
THE Sioux. ................................................. 136

CHAPTER VI.
THE PONCAS ................................................. 186

CHAPTER VII.
THE WINNEBAGOES ........................................... 218

CHAPTER VIII.
THE CHEROKEES .......................................................................... 267

iy CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX. ^

MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES 298

I. The Conestoga Massacre 298

II. The Gnadenhiitten Massacre 317

HI. Massacres of Apaches 324

CHAPTER X.

CONCLUSION 336

APPENDIX.

I. THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 843

II. TflEPoNCA CASE 859

HI TESTIMONIES TO INDIAN CHAEACTER 374

IV. OUTRAGES COMMITTED ON INDIANS BY WHITES". 381

V. EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OP THE COMMISSION SENT TO TREAT

WITH THE SlOUX CHIEF SITTING BULL, IN CANADA 386

VI. ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE OLD GRIEVANCES OF THE Sioux 889

"VTL LETTER FROM SARAH WINNEMUCCA, AN EDUCATED PAII-UTE

WOMAN 395

VUL LAWS OF THE DELAWARE NATION OF INDIANS 896

IX, ACCOUNT OF THE CHEROKEE wno INVENTED THE CITKUOKKE AL-
PHABET 404

X. PRICES PAID BY WHITE MEN FOR SCALPS 405

XI. EXTRACT FROM TREATY WITH CHEYENNES IN 1865 406

XH. WOOD-CUTTING BY INDIANS IN DAKOTA 407

\\\\, SEQUEL TO THE WALLA WALLA MASSACRE.. . . , 407

XTV. AN ACCOUNT OF THE NUMBERS, LOCATION, AND SOCIAL AND IN-
DUSTRIAL CONDITION OF EACH IMPORTANT TRIBE AND BAND OF
INDIANS WITHIN THE UNITED STATES 411

XV. BEPOUT ON THE CONDITION AND NEEDS OP THE MISSION

INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA 453

PKEFAOE.

I HAVE been requested to write a preface to this sad story of
*A Century of Dishonor." I cannot refuse the request of one
whose woman's heart has pleaded so eloquently for the poor Red
men. The materials for her book have been taken from official
documents. The sad revelation of broken faith, of violated trea-
ties, and of inhuman deeds of violence will bring a flush of shame
to the cheeks of those who love their country. They will wonder
how our rulers have dared to so trifle with justice, and provoke
the anger of God. Many of the stories will be new to the reader.
The Indian owns no telegraph, employs no press reporter, and his
side of the story is unknown to the people.

Nations, like individuals, reap exactly what they sow ; they
who sow robbery reap robbery. The seed-sowing of iniquity re-
plies in a harvest of blood. The American people have accepted
as truth the teaching that the Indians were a degraded, brutal
race of savages, whom it was the will of God should perish at
the approach of civilization. If they do not say with our Puri-
tan fathers that these are the Hittites who are to be driven out
before the saints of the Lord, they do accept the teaching that
manifest destiny will drive the Indians from the earth. The in-
exorable has no tears or pity at the cries of anguish of the doom-
ed race. Ahab never speaks kindly of Naboth, whom he has
robbed of his vineyard. It soothes conscience to cast mud on the
character of the one whom we have wronged.

The people have laid the causes of Indian wars at the door of
the Indian trader, the people on the border, the Indian agents,
the army, and the Department of the Interior. None of these are
responsible for the Indian wars, which have cost the United States
five hundred millions of dollars and tens of thousands of valua-
ble lives. In the olden time the Indian trader was the Indian's
friend. The relation was one of mutual dependence. If the
trader oppressed the Indian he was in danger of losing his debt;

Yi PREFACE.

if the Indian refused to pay his debts, the trader must leave the
country. The factors and agents of the old fiir companies tell us
that their goods were as safe in the unguarded trading-post as in
the civilized village. The pioneer settlers have had too much at
stake to excite an Indian massacre, which would overwhelm their
loved ones in ruin. The army are not responsible for Indian
wars; they are "men under authority," who go where they are
sent. The men who represent the honor of the nation have a
tradition that lying is a disgrace, and that theft forfeits charac-
ter. General Crook expressed the feeling of the army when he
replied to a friend who said, "It is hard to go on such a cam-
paign." " Yes, it is hard ; but, sir, the hardest thing is to go and
fight those whom you know are in the right." The Indian Bu-
reau is often unable to fulfil the treaties, because Congress has
failed to make the appropriations. If its agents are not men of
the highest character, it is largely due to the fact that we send a
man to execute this difficult trust at a remote agency, and expect
him to support himself and family on $1500 a year. The Indian
Bureau represents a system which is a blunder and a crime.

The Indian is the only human being within our territory who
has no individual right in the soil. He is not amenable to or
protected by law. The executive, the legislative, and judicial
departments of the Government recognize that he has a posses-
sory right in the soil; but his title is merged in the tribe — the
man has no standing before the law. A Chinese or a Hottentot
would have, but the native American is left pitiably helpless.
This system grew out of our relations at the first settlement of
the country. The isolated settlements along the Atlantic coast
could not ask the Indians, who outnumbered them ten to one, to
accept the position of wards. No wise policy was adopted, with
altered circumstances, to train the Indians for citizenship. Trea-
ties were made of the same binding force of the constitution ; but
these treaties were unfilled. It may be doubted whether one sin-
gle treaty has ever been fulfilled as it would have been if it had
been made with a foreign power. The treaty has been made as
between two independent sovereigns. Sometimes each party has
been ignorant of the wishes of the other; for the heads of both
parties to the treaty have been on the interpreter's shoulders, and
he was the owned creature of corrupt men, who desired to use
the Indians as a key to unlock the nation's treasury. Pledges,
solemnly made, have been shamelessly violated. The Indian has
had no redress but war. In these wars ten white men were kill-

PKEFACE, Vil

ed to one Indian, and the Indians who were killed have cost the
Government a hundred thousand dollars each. Then came a new
treaty, more violated faith, another war, until we have not a hun-
dred miles between the Atlantic and Pacific which has not heen
the scene of an Indian massacre.

All this while Canada has had no Indian wars. Our Govern-
ment has expended for the Indians a hundred dollars to their one.
They recognize, as we do, that the Indian has a possessory right
to the soil. They purchase this right, as we do, by treaty; but
their treaties are made with the Indian subjects of Her Majesty.
They set apart & permanent reservation for them; they seldom re-
move Indians ; they select agents of high character, who receive
their appointments for life ; they make fewer promises, but they
fulfil them; they give the Indians Christian missions, which have
the hearty support of Christian people, and all their efforts are
toward self-help and civilization. An incident will illustrate the
two systems. The officer of the United States Army who was
sent to receive Alaska from the Russian Government stopped in
British Columbia. Governor Douglas had heard that an Indian
had been murdered by another Indian. He visited the Indian
tribe; he explained to them that the murdered man was a sub-
ject of Her Majesty ; he demanded the culprit. The murderer
was surrendered, was tried, was found guilty, and was hanged.
On reaching Alaska the officer happened to enter the Greek
church, and saw on the altar a beautiful copy of the Gospels in
a costly binding studded with jewels. He called upon the Greek
bishop, and said, " Your Grace, I called to say you had better re-
move that copy of the Gospels from the church, for it may be
stolen." The bishop replied, "Why should I remove it ? It was
the gift of the mother of the emperor, and has lain on the altar
seventy years." The officer blushed, and said, "There is no law
in the Indian country, and I was afraid it might be stolen." The
bishop said, " The book is in God's house, and it is His book, and
I shall not take it away." The book remained. The country
became ours, and the next day the Gospel was stolen.

Our Indian wars are needless and wicked. The North Amer-
ican Indian is the noblest type of a heathen man on the earth.
He recognizes a Great Spirit ; he believes in immortality ; he has
a quick intellect; he is a clear thinker; he is brave and fearless,
and, until betrayed, he is true to his plighted faith ; he has a pas-
sionate love for his children, and counts it joy to die for his peo-
ple. Our most terrible wars have been with the noblest types of

viii

the Indians, and with men who had been the white man's fnenaT
Nicolet said the Sioux were the finest type of wild men he had
ever seen. Old traders say that it used to be the boast of the
Sioux that they had never taken the life of a white man. Lewis
and Clarke, Governor Stevens, and Colonel Steptoe bore testimony
to the devoted friendship of the Nez Percys for the white man.
Colonel Boone, Colonel Bent, General Harney, and others speak
in the highest praise of the Cheyennes. The Navahoes were a
semi-civilized people.

Our best Mends have suffered more deeply from our neglect
and violated faith than our most bitter foes. Peaceable Indians
often say, " You leave us to suffer ; if we killed your people, then
you would take care of us."

Our Indian wars have not come wholly from violated faith. In
time of peace it has been our policy to establish " almshouses " to
train and educate savage paupers. We have purchased paint,
beads, scalping -knives, to deck warriors, and have fed them in
idleness at the agency. Around this agency and along the border
were gathered influences to degrade the savage, and sink him to
a depth his fathers had never known. It has only needed a real
or a fancied wrong to have this pauperized savagery break out in
deeds of blood. Under President Grant a new departure was
taken. The peace policy was little more than a name. No
change was made in the Indian system ; no rights of property
were given; no laws were passed to protect the Indians. The
President did take the nomination of Indian agents from politi-
cians, who had made the office a reward for political service. He
gave the nomination of Indian agents to the executive committees
of the missionary societies of the different churches. Where these
Christian bodies established schools and missions, and the Gov-
ernment cast its influence on the side of labor, it was a success.
More has been done to civilize the Indians in the past twelve
years than in any period of our history. The Indian Ring has
fought the new policy at every step ; and yet, notwithstanding
our Indian wars, our violated treaties, and our wretched system,
thousands of Indians, who were poor, degraded savages, are now
living as Christian, civilized men. There was a time when it
seemed impossible to secure the attention of the Government to
any wrongs done to the Indians : it is not so to-day. The Gov-
ernment does listen to the friends of the Indians, and many of
the grosser forms of robbery are stopped. No permanent reform
can be secured until the heart of the people is touched. In 1802

PREFACE. iZ

I visited Washington, to lay before the Administration the causes
which had desolated our fair State -with the blood of those slain
by Indian massacre. After pleading in vain, and finding no re-
dress, Secretary Stanton said to a friend, " What does the Bishop
want ? If he came here to tell us that our Indian system is a sink
of iniquity, tell him we all know it. Tell him the United States
never cures a wrong until the people demand it ; and when the
hearts of the people are reached the Indian will be saved." In
this book the reader will find the sad story of a century — no, not
the whole story, but the fragmentary story of isolated tribes.
The author will have her reward if it shall aid in securing jus-
tice to a noble and a wronged race. Even with the sad experi-
ences of the past we have not learned justice. The Cherokees
and other tribes received the Indian Territory as a compensation
and atonement for one of the darkest crimes ever committed by
a Christian nation. That territory was conveyed to them by leg-
islation as strong as the wit of statesmen could devise. The fa-
thers who conveyed this territory to the Cherokees are dead.
Greedy eyes covet the land. The plans are laid to wrest it from
its rightful owners. If this great iniquity is consummated, these
Indians declare that all hope in our justice will die out of their
hearts, and that they will defend their country with their lives.

The work of reform is a difficult one ; it will cost us time,
effort, and money ; it will demand the best thoughts of the best
men in the country. We shall have to regain the confidence of
our Indian wards by honest dealing and the fulfilment of our
promises. Now the name of a white man is to the Indians a syn-
onyme for " liar." Bed Cloud recently paid a visit to the Black
Hills, and was hospitably entertained by his white friends. In
bidding them good-bye he expressed the hope that, if they did
not meet again on earth, they might meet beyond the grave " in
a land where white men ceased to be liars."

Dark as the history is, there is a brighter side. ITo missions
to the heathen have been more blessed than those among the In-
dians. Thousands, who were once wild, painted savages, finding
their greatest joy in deeds of war, are now the disciples of the
'Prince of Peace. There are Indian churches with Indian congre-
gations, in which Indian clergy are telling the story of God's love
in Jesus Christ our Saviour. Where once was only heard the med-
icine-drum and the song of the scalp-dance, there is now the bell
calling Christians to prayer, and songs of praise and words of
prayer go up to heaven. The Christian home, though only a

X PUEFACE.

log-cabin, "has taken the place of the wigwam ; and the poor, de-
graded Indian woman has been changed to the Christian wife
and mother. With justice, personal rights, and the protection of
law, the Gospel will do for our Red brothers what it has done foi
other races — give to them homes, manhood and freedom.

H. B. WHTPFLE, Bishop of Minnesota.
NBW YOBK, November Ittfc, 1880.

INTRODUCTION.

THE present number of Indians in the United States doea not
exceed three hundred thousand, but is possibly as large now as
when the Europeans began the settlement of the North Ameri-
can continent. Different tribes then existing have dwindled, and
some have become extinct ; but there is reason to believe that the
vast territory now occupied by the United States, if not then a
howling wilderness, was largely an unpeopled solitude. The
roaming wild men who met the new discoverers were, however,
numerous enough to make the Indian problem at the outset a
serious one, while neither its gravity nor its difficulty yet shows
signs of diminution.

The difficulty is not because the Indians are wild and savage
men, for such men have in the past history of the human race
been subdued and civilized in unnumbered instances, while the
changes which in our time have been wrought among the canni-
bals of the South Sea and the barbarians of South Africa, and
among the wildest and most savage of the North American In-
dians themselves, show abundantly that the agencies of civiliza-
tion ready to our hand are neither wanting nor weak.

The great difficulty with the Indian problem is not with the
Indian, but with the Government and people of the United States.
Instead of a liberal and far-sighted policy looking to the educa-
tion and civilization and possible citizenship of the Indian tribes,
we have suffered these people to remain as savages, for whose fut-
ure we have had no adequate care, and to the consideration of
whose present state the Government has only been moved when
pressed by some present danger. We have encroached upon
their means of subsistence without furnishing them any proper
return; we have shut thorn up on reservations often notoriously
unfit for them, or, if fit, we have not hesitated to drive them off for

2 INTRODUCTION.

our profit, without regard to tlieirs ; wehave treated them sometimes
as foreign nations, with whom we have had treaties ; sometimes
as wards, who are entitled to no voice in the management of their
affairs ; and sometimes as subjects, from whom we have required
obedience, but to whom we have recognized no obligations. That
the Government of the United States, which has often plighted its
faith to the Indian, and has broken it as often, and, while punish-
ing him for his crimes, has given him no status in the courts ex-
cept as a criminal, has been sadly derelict in its duty toward him,
and has reaped the whirlwind only because it has sown the wind,
is set forth in no exaggerated terms in the following pages, and
ought to be acknowledged with shame by every American citizen.

It will be admitted now on every hand that the only solution
of the Indian problem involves the entire change of these people
from a savage to a civilized life. They are not likely to be exter-
minated. Unless we ourselves withdraw from all contact with
them, and leave them to roam untrammeled over their wilds, or
until the power of a Christian civilization shall make them con-
sciously one with us, they will not cease to vex us.

But how shall they become civilized ? Civilization is in a most
important sense a gift rather than an acquisition. Men do not
gain it for themselves, except as stimulated thereto by some in-
citement from above themselves. The savage does not labor for
the gratifications of civilized life, since he does not desire these.
His labors and his desires are both dependent upon some spirit-
ual gift, which, having kindled him, quickens his desires and calls
forth his toil. Unless he has some help from without, some light
and life from above to illumine and inspire him, the savage re-
mains a savage, and without this all the blandishments of the civ-
ilization with which he might be brought into contact could no
more win him into a better state than could all the light and
warmth of the sun woo a desert into a fruitful field. When Eng-
lish missionaries went to the Indians in Canada, they took with
them skilled laborers who should teach the Indians how to labor,
and who, by providing them at first with comfortable houses, and
clothing, and food, should awaken their desires and evoke their
efforts to perpetuate and increase these comforts. But the Indian
would not work, and preferred his wigwam, and skins, and raw
flesh, and filth to the cleanliness and conveniences of a civilized
home; and it was only as Christian influences taught him his in-
ner need, and how this could be supplied, that he was led to wish
and work for the improvement of his outer condition and habits

rNTEODUCTIOK. 3

of life. The same is true everywhere. Civilization does not re-
produce itself. It must first be kindled, and can then only be
kept alive by a power genuinely Christian.

But it is idle to attempt to carry Christian influences to any one
unless we are Christian. The first step, therefore, toward the de-
sired transformation of the Indian is a transformed treatment of
him by ourselves. In sober earnest, our Government needs, first of
all, to be Christian, and to treat the Indian question as Christian
principles require. This means at the outset that we should be
honest, and not talk about maintaining our rights until we are
willing to fulfil our obligations. It means that we should be kind,
and quite as eager to give the Indian what is ours as to get what
is his. It means that we should be wise, and patient, and per-
severing, abandoning all makeshifts and temporary expedients, and
setting it before us as our fixed aim to act toward him as a broth-
er, until he shall act as a brother toward us. There is no use to
attempt to teach Christian duty to him in words till he has first
seen it exemplified in our own deeds.

The true Christian principle of self-forgetful honesty and kind-
ness, clearly and continuously exhibited, is the first requisite of
true statesmanship in the treatment of the Indian question. This
would not require, however, the immediate entrance of the Indian
upon all the privileges of citizenship and self-direction. Chris-
tianized though he might be, he would need for a longer or short-
er time guardianship like a child. A wise care for his own inter-
ests could not be expected of him at the outset, and the Govern-
ment should care for him with wise forethought. Obedience to
the law should be required of him, and the protection of the la^
afforded him. The jurisdiction of the courts and the presence of
the Government should be felt in the Indian Territory and upon
every Indian reservation as powerfully as in the most enlightened
portions of the land. The court should go as early as the school,
if not before, and is itself an educational agency of incalculable
importance.

When the Indian, through wise and Christian treatment, be-
comes invested with all the rights and duties of citizenship, his
special tribal relations will become extinct. This will not be
easily nor rapidly done ; but all our policy should be shaped to-
ward the gradual loosening of the tribal bond, and the gradual
absorption of the Indian families among the masses of our people.
This would involve the bringing to an end of the whole system
of Indian reservations, and would forbid the continued isolation

4 INTUODTJCTION.

of the Indian Territory. It is not wise statesmanship to create
impassable barriers between any parts of our country or any por-
tions of our people.

Very difficult questions demanding very careful treatment arise
in reference to just this point. Certain Indian tribes now own cer-
tain Indian reservations and the Indian Territory, and this right
of property ought to be most sacredly guarded. But it does not,
therefore, follow that these Indians, in their present state, ought
to control the present use of this property. They may need a
long training before they are wise enough to manage rightfully
what is nevertheless rightfully their own. This training, to
which their property might fairly contribute means, should assid-
uously be given in established schools with required attendance.

If the results thus indicated shall gradually come to pass, the
property now owned by the tribes should be ultimately divided
and held in severalty by the individual members of the tribes.
Such a division should not be immediately made, and, when
made, it should be with great care and faithfulness; but the
Indian himself should, as soon as may be, feel both the incen-
tives and the restraints which an individual ownership of prop-
erty is fitted to excite, and the Government, which is his guar-
dian, having educated him for this ownership, should endow him
with it. But until the Indian becomes as able as is the average
white man to manage his property for himself, the Government
should manage it for him, no matter whether he be willing or un-
willing to have this done.

A difficulty arises in the cases— of which there are many—
where treaties have been made by the Government of the United
States with different Indian tribes, wherein the two parties have
agreed to certain definitely named stipulations. Such treaties
have proceeded upon the false view— false in principle, and equal-
ly false in fact— that an Indian tribe, roaming in the wilderness
and living by hunting and plunder, is a nation. In order to be a
nation, there must be a people with a code of laws which they
practise, and a government which they maintain. No vague sense
of some unwritten law, to which human nature, in its lowest stages,
doubtless feels some obligation, and no regulations instinctively
adopted for common defence, which the rudest people herded to-
gether will always follow, are enough to constitute a nation.
These Indian tribes are not a nation, and nothing either in their
history or their condition could properly invest them with a trea-
ty-making power.

INTRODUCTION. 5

And yet when exigencies have seemed to require, we have
treated them as nations, and have pledged our own national faith
in solemn covenant with them. It were the baldest truism to
say that this faith and covenant should be fulfilled. Of course it
should be fulfilled. It is to our own unspeakable disgrace that
we have so often failed therein. But it becomes us wisely and
honestly to inquire whether the spirit of these agreements might
not be falsified by their letter, and whether, in order to give the
Indian his real rights, it may not be necessary to set aside preroga-
tives to which he might technically and formally lay claim. If the
Indian Territory and the Indian reservations have been given to
certain tribes as their possession forever, the sacredness of this
guarantee should not shut our eyes to the sacredness also of the
real interests of the people in whose behalf the guarantee was
given. We ought not to lose the substance in our efforts to re-
tain the shadow ; we ought not to insist upon the summum jus,
when this would become the aumma irtjuria,*

Of course the utmost caution is needed in the application of
such a principle. To admit that a treaty with the Indians may
be set aside without the consent of the Indians themselves, is to
open the door again to the same frauds and falsehoods which
have so darkly branded a " Century of Dishonor." But our great
trouble has been that we have sought to exact justice from the
Indian while exhibiting no justice to him; and when we shall
manifest that all our procedure toward him is in truth and up-
rightness, we need have no fear but that both his conscience and
his judgment will in the end approve.

JULIUS H. SBELYE.

AMHEBST COIXBGB, December 10, 1880,

AUTHOE'S NOTE.

AT.T. the quotations in this book, where the name of the author-
ity is not cited, are from Official Reports of the "War Department
or the Department of the Interior.

The book gives, as its title indicates, only a sketch, and not a
history.

To write in full the history of any one of these Indian commu-
nities, of its forced migrations, wars, and miseries, would fill a vol-
ume by itself.

The history of the missionary labors of the different churches
among the Indians would make another volume. It is the one
bright spot on the dark record.

All this I have been forced to leave untouched, in strict ad-
herence to my object, which has been simply to show our causes
for national shame in the matter of our treatment of the Indians.
It is a shame which the American nation ought not to lie under,
for the American people, as a people, are not at heart unjust.

If there be one thing which they believe in more than any
other, and mean that every man on this continent shall have, it is
" fair play." And as soon as they fairly understand how cruelly
it has been denied to the Indian, they will rise up and demand it
for him.

H.H.

A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY.

THE question of the honorableness of the United States*
dealings with the Indians turns largely on a much disputed and
little understood point. What was the nature of the Indians'
right to the country in which they were living when the conti-
nent of North America was discovered? Between the theory
of some sentimentalists that the ifhdians were the real owners
of the soil, and the theory of some politicians that they had
no right of ownership whatever in it, there are innumerable
grades and confusions of opinion. The only authority on the
point must be the view and usage as accepted by the great dis-
covering Powers at the time of discovery, and afterward in
their disposition of the lands discovered.

Fortunately, an honest examination of these points leaves no
doubt on the matter.

England, France, Spain, little Portugal — all quarrelling fierce-
ly, and fighting with each other for the biggest share in the
new continent — each claiming "sovereignty of the soil" by
"Hit of priority of discovery — all recognized the Indians'
n° ight of occupancy " as a right ; a right alienable in but two

tys, either by purchase or by conquest.

All their discussions as to boundaries, from 1603 down to

I

10 A CBNTUEY OF .DISHONOR.

1776, recognized this right and this principle. They reiter-
ated, firstly, that discoverers had the right of sovereignty — a
right in so far absolute that the discoverer was empowered by
it not only to take possession of, hut to grant, sell, and con-
vey lands still occupied by Indians — and that for any nation to
attempt to take possession of, grant, sell, or convey any such
Indian-occupied lands while said lands were claimed by other
nations under the right of discovery, was an infringement of
rights, and just occasion of war ; secondly, that all this grant-
ing, selling, conveying was to be understood to be " subject to
the Indians' right of occupancy," which remained to be extin-
guished either through further purchase or through conquest
by the grantee or purchasers

Peters, in his preface to the seventh volume of the " United
States Statutes at Large," says, " The history of America, from
its discovery to the present day, proves the universal recogni-
tion of these principles."

Each discovering Power might regulate the relations be-
tween herself and the Indians ; but as to the existence of the
Indians' " right of occupancy," there was absolute unanimity
among them. That there should have been unanimity regard-
ing any one thing between them, is remarkable. It is impos-
sible for us to realize what a sudden invitation to greed and
discord lay in this fair, beautiful, unclaimed continent — eight
millions of square miles of land — more than twice the size of
all Europe itself. What a lure to-day would such another new
continent prove ! The fighting over it would be as fierce now
as the fighting was then, and the "right of occupancy" of the
natives would stand small chance of such unanimous rcco<*ni-

o

tion as the four Great Powers then justly gave it.
C Of the fairness of holding that ultimate sovereignty
longed to the civilized discoverer, as against the savage I
barian, there is no manner nor ground of doubt. To quos,
this is feeble sentimentalism. But to affirm and uphold 1

INTRODUCTORY. 11

is not in any wise to overlook the lesser right which remained ;
as good, of its kind, and to its extent, as was the greater right
to which, in the just nature of things, it was bound to give
way.

clt being clear, then, that the Indians' "right of occupancy"
was a right recognized by all the great discovering Powers,
acted upon by them in all their dispositions of lands here dis-
covered, it remains next to inquire whether the United States
Government, on taking its place among the nations, also recog-
nized or accepted this Indian " right of occupancy " as an act-
ual right. Upon this point, also, there is no doubt. /

" By the treaty which concluded the War of our Revolution,
Great Britain relinquished all claims not only to the govern-
ment, but to the proprietary and territorial rights of the Unit-
ed States whose boundaries were fixed in the second Article.
By this treaty the powers of the government and the right to
soil which had previously been in Great Britain passed defi-
nitely to these States. We had before taken possession of
them by declaring independence, but neither the declaration of
independence nor the treaty confirming it could give us more
than that which we before possessed, or to which Great Britain
was before entitled. It has never been doubted that either the
United States or the several States had a clear title to all the
lands within the boundary-lines described in the treaty, subject
only to the Indian right of occupancy, and that the exclusive
right to extinguish that right was vested in that government
which might constitutionally exercise it."*

" Subject to the Indian right of occupancy." It is notice-
able how perpetually this phrase reappears. In their desire to
define, assert, and enforce the greater right, the " right of sov-
ereignty," the makers, interpreters, and recorders of law did
not realize, probably, how clearly and equally they were defin-

* Peters, United States Statutes at Large, vol. vii.

12 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR

ing, asserting, and enforcing the lesser right, the " right of
occupancy,"

Probably they did not so much as dream that a time would
come when even this lesser right — this least of all rights, it
would seem, which could be claimed by, or conceded to, an
aboriginal inhabitant of a country, however savage — would be
practically denied to our Indians. But if they had foreseen
such a time, they could hardly have left more explicit testi-
mony to meet the exigency.

"The United States have unequivocally acceded to that
great and broad rule by which its civilized inhabitants now
hold this country. They hold and assert in themselves the
title by which it was acquired. They maintain, as all others
have maintained, that discovery gave an exclusive right to ex-
tinguish the Indian title of occupancy, either by purchase or
conquest, and gave also a right to such a degree of sovereignty
-as the circumstances of the people would allow them to exercise.
" The power now possessed by the United States to grant
lands resided, while we were colonies, in the Crown or its gran-
tees. The validity of the titles given by either has never been
questioned in our courts. It has been exercised uniformly over
territories in possession of the Indians. The existence of this
power must negative the existence of any right which may
conflict with and control it. ' An absolute title to lands can-
not exist at the same time in different persons or in different
governments. 'An absolute must be an exclusive title, or at
least a title which excludes all others not compatible witli it.
All our institutions recognize the absolute title of the Crown,
subject only to the Indian right of occupancy, and recognize
the absolute title of the Crown to extinguish the right. This
is incompatible with an absolute and complete title in the In-
dians."*

INTRODUCTORY, 13

Certainly. But it is also "incompatible with an absolute
and perfect title " in the white man ! Here again, in their de-
sire to define and enforce the greater right, by making it so
clear that it included the lesser one, they equally define and
enforce the lesser right as a thing to be included. The word
" subject " is a strong participle when it is used legally. Pro'
visions are made in wills, "subject to" a widow's right of
dower, for instance, and the provisions cannot be carried out
without the consent of the person to whom they are thus de-
clared to be "subject." A title which is pronounced to be
" subject to " anything or anybody cannot be said to be abso-
lute till that subjection is removed.

There have been some definitions and limitations by high
legal authority of the methods in which this Indian "right of
occupancy " might be extinguished even by conquest.

" The title by conquest is acquired and maintained by force.
The conqueror prescribes its limits. Humanity, however, act-
ing on public opinion, has established as a general rule that the
conquered shall not be wantonly oppressed, and that their con-
dition shall remain as eligible as is compatible with the objects
of the conquest Usually they are incorporated with the vic-
torious nation, and become subjects or citizens of the govern-
ment with which they are connected. * * * When this incor-
poration is practicable* humanity demands, and a wise policy
requires, that the rights of the conquered to property should
remain unimpaired ; that the new subjects should be governed
as equitably as the old. * * * When the conquest is complete,
and the conquered inhabitants can be blended with the con-
querors, or safely governed as a distinct people, public opinion,
which not even the conqueror can disregard, imposes these re-
straints upon him, and he cannot neglect them without injury
to his fame, and hazard to his power."*

* Peters, United States Statutes at Large, voL yii.

14 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

In the sadly famous case of the removal of the Cherokee
tribe from Georgia, it is recorded as the opinion of our Su-
preme Court that "the Indians are acknowledged to have an
unquestionable, and heretofore unquestioned, right to the lands
they occupy until that right shall be extinguished by a volun-
tary cession to the Government." * * * " The Indian nations
have always been considered as distinct independent political
communities, retaining their original natural rights as the un-
disputed possessors of the soil, from time immemorial, with the
single exception of that imposed by irresistible power, which
excluded them from intercourse with any other European po-
tentate than the first discoverer of the coast of the particular
region claimed; and this was a restriction which those Eu-
ropean potentates imposed on themselves as well as on the
Indians. ' The veiy term c nation,' so generally applied to
them, means 'a people distinct from others.' The Constitu-
tion, by declaring treaties already made, as well as those to bo
made, to be the supreme law of the land, has adopted and
sanctioned the previous treaties with the Indian nations, and
consequently admits their rank among those powers who are
capable of making treaties. The words 'treaty' and * na-
tion' are words of our own language, selected in our diplo-
matic and legislative proceedings by ourselves, having each a
definite and well understood meaning. We have applied them
to Indians as we have applied them to other nations of the,
earth. They are applied to all in the same sense."*

In another decision of the Supreme Court we find still
greater emphasis put upon the Indian right of occupancy, by
stating it as a right, the observance of which was stipulated for
in treaties between the United States and other nations.

" When the United States acquired and took possession of
the Floridas, the treaties which had been made with the Indian

* Worcester vs. State of Georgia, 6 Peters, 515.

INTRODUCTORY. 15

tribes before the acquisition of the territory by Spain and
Great Britain remained in force over all the ceded territory, as
the law which regulated the relations with all the Indians who
were parties to them, and were binding on the United States
by the obligation they had assumed by the Louisiana treaty as
a supreme law of the land.

" The treaties with Spain and England before the acquisition
of Florida by the United States, which guaranteed to the Sem-
inole Indians their lands, according to the right of property
with which they possessed them, were adopted by the United
States, who thus became the protectors of all the rights they
(the Indians) had previously enjoyed, or could of right enjoy,
under Great Britain or Spain, as individuals or nations, by any
treaty to which the United States thus became parties in
1803. * * *

" The Indian right to the lands as property was not merely
of possession ; that of alienation was concomitant ; both were
equally secured, protected, and guaranteed by Great Britain
and Spain, subject only to ratification and confirmation by the
license, charter, or deed from the government representing the
king." * * *

The laws made it necessary, when the Indians sold their
lands, to have the deeds presented to the governor for confir-
mation. The sales by the Indians transferred the kind of right
which they possessed ; the ratification of the sale by the gov-
ernor must be regarded as a relinquishment of the title of
the Crown to the purchaser, and no instance is known of re-
fusal of permission to sell, or of the rejection of an Indian

"The colonial charters, a great portion of the individual
grants by the proprietary and royal governments, and a still
greater portion by the States of the Union after the Revolu-

* United States vs. Clark, 9 Peters, 168.

16 A CEOTUKY OF DISHONOR.

tion, were made for lands within the Indian hunting-grounds,
North Carolina and Virginia, to a great extent, paid their of-
ficers and soldiers of the [Revolutionary War by such grants,
and extinguished the arrears due the army by similar means.
It was one of the great resources which sustained the war, not
only by those States but by other States. The ultimate fee,
encumbered with the right of occupancy, was in the Crown
previous to the [Revolution, and in the States afterward, and
subject to grant. This right of occupancy was protected by
the political power, and respected by the courts until extin-
guished." * * * " So the Supreme Court and the State courts
have uniformly held."*

President Adams, in his Message of 1828, thus describes the
policy of the United States toward the Indians at that time :

"At the establishment of the Federal Government the prin-
ciple was adopted of considering them as foreign and inde-
pendent powers, and also as proprietors of lands. As inde-
pendent powers, we negotiated with them by treaties ; as pro-
prietors, we purchased of them all the land which we could
prevail on them to sell ; as brethren of the human race, rude
and ignorant, we endeavored to bring them to the knowledge
of religion and letters."

Kent says : " The European nations which, respectively, es-
tablished colonies in America, assumed the ultimate dominion
to be in themselves, and claimed the exclusive right to grant a
title to the soil, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy.
The natives were admitted to be the rightful occupants of the
soil, with a legal as well as just claim to retain possession of
it, and to use it according to their own discretion, though not
to dispose of the soil at -their own will, except to the govern-
ment claiming the right of pre-emption." * * * " The United
States adopted the same principle; and their exclusive right to

* Clark vs. Smith, 13 Peters.

INTRODUCTORY. 17

extinguish the Indian title by purchase or conquest, and to
grant the soil and exercise such a degree of sovereignty as cir-
cumstances required, has never been judicially questioned."

Kent also says, after giving the Supreme Court decision in
the case of Johnson vs. M'Intosh : " The same court has since
been repeatedly called upon to discuss and decide great ques-
tions concerning Indian rights and title, and the subject has of
late become exceedingly grave and momentous, affecting the
faith and the character, if not the tranquillity and safety, of
the Government of the United States."

In Gardner's " Institutes of International Law " the respec-
tive rights to land of the Indians and the whites are thus
summed up : " In our Union the aborigines had only a pos-
sessory title, and in the original thirteen States each owned in
fee, subject to the Indian right, all ungranted lands within their
respective limits; and beyond the States the residue of the
ungranted lands were vested in fee in the United States, sub-
ject to the Indian possessory right, to the extent of the national
limits."

Dr. Walker, in his "American Law," makes a still briefer
summary : " The American doctrine on the subject of Indian
title is briefly this : The Indians have no fee in the lands they
occupy. The fee is in the Government. They cannot, of
course, aliene them either to nations or individuals, the ex-
clusive right of pre-emption being in the Government Yet
they have a qualified right of occupancy which can only be ex-
tinguished by treaty, and upon fair compensation; until which
they are entitled to be protected in their possession."

"Abbott's Digest," one of the very latest authorities, reiter-
ates the same principle: "The right of occupancy has been
recognized in countless ways, among others by many decisions
of courts and opinions of attorney-generals."

It being thus established that the Indian's " right of occu-
pancy" in his lands was a right recognized by all the Great

18 A CENTUET OF DISHONOR.

Powers discovering this continent, and accepted by them as a
right necessary to be extinguished either by purchase or con-
quest, and that the United States, as a nation, has also from
the beginning recognized, accepted, and acted upon this theory,
it is next in order to inquire whether the United States has
dealt honorably or dishonorably by the Indians in this matter
of their recognized " right of occupancy."

In regard to the actions of individuals there is rarely much
room for discussion whether they be honorable or dishonor-
able, the standard of honor in men's conduct being, among
the civilized, uniform, well understood, and undisputed. Steal-
ing, for instance, is everywhere held to be dishonorable, as
well as impolitic; lying, also, in all its forms; breaking of
promises and betrayals of trust are scorned even among the
most ignorant people. But when it comes to the discussion of
the acts of nations, there seems to be less clearness of concep-
tion, less uniformity of standard of right and wrong, honor
and dishonor. It is necessary, therefore, in charging a gov-
ernment or nation with dishonorable conduct, to show that
its moral standard ought in nowise to differ from the moral
standard of an individual ; that what is cowardly, cruel, base
in a man, is cowardly, cruel, base in a government or nation.
To do this, it is only needful to look into the history of the
accepted " Law of Nations," from the days of the Emperor
Justinian until now.

The Roman jurisconsults employed as synonymous, says
Wheaton, uthe two expressions, 'jus gentium,' that law which
is found among all the known nations of the earth, and ' jus
naturale,' founded on the general nature of mankind ; never-
theless, of these two forms of the same idea, the first ought to
be considered as predominant, since it as well as the 'jus civile'
was a positive law, the origin and development of which must
be sought for in history."

Nations heing simply, as Vattel defines them, " societies of

INTRODUCTORY. 19

men united together," it is plain that, if there be such a thing
as the " law of nature," which men as individuals arc bound to
obey, that law is also obligatory on the " societies " made up
of men thus " united."

Hobbes divides the law of nature into that of man and that
of States, saying, " The maxims of each of these laws are pre-
cisely the same ; but as States, once established, assume per-
sonal properties, that which is termed the natural law when we
speak of the duties of individuals is called the law of nations
when applied to whole nations or States." The Emperor Jus-
tinian said, "The law of nations is common to the whole hu-
man race."

Grotius draws the distinction between the law of nature and
the law of nations thus : " When several persons at different
times and in various places maintain the same thing as certain,
such coincidence of sentiment must be attributed to some gen-
eral cause. Now, in the. questions before us, that cause must
necessarily be one or the other of these two — either a just con-
sequence drawn from natural principles, or a universal consent ;
the former discovers to us the law of nature, and the latter the
law of nations."

Vattel defines the "necessary law of nations" to be the "ap-
plication of the law of nature to nations." He says : " It is
* necessary,7 because nations are absolutely bound to observe it.
This law contains the precepts prescribed by the law of nature
to States, on whom that law is not less obligatory than on indi-
viduals; since States are composed of men, their resolutions are
taken by men, and the law of nations is binding on all men,
under whatever relation they act. This is the law which
Grotius, and those who follow him, call the Internal Law of
Nations, on account of its being obligatory on nations in the
point of conscience."

Vattel says again : " Nations being composed of men natural-
ly free and independent, and who before the establishment of

18 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR

Powers discovering this continent, and accepted by them as a
right necessary to be extinguished either by purchase or con-
quest, and that the United States, as a nation, has also from
the beginning recognized, accepted, and acted upon this theory,
it is next in order to inquire whether the United States has
dealt honorably or dishonorably by the Indians in this matter
of their recognized " right of occupancy."

In regard to the actions of individuals there is rarely much
room for discussion whether they be honorable or dishonor-
able, the standard of honor in men's conduct being, among
the civilized, uniform, well understood, and undisputed. Steal-
ing, for instance, is everywhere held to be dishonorable, as
well as impolitic; lying, also, in all its forms; breaking of
promises and betrayals of trust are scorned even among the
most ignorant people. But when it comes to the discussion of
the acts of nations, there seems to be less clearness of concep-
tion, less uniformity of standard of right and wrong, honor
and dishonor. It is necessary, therefore, in charging a gov-
ernment or nation with dishonorable conduct, to show that
its moral standard ought in nowise to differ from the moral
standard of an individual ; that what is cowardly, cruel, base
in a man, is cowardly, cruel, base in a government or nation.
To do this, it is only needful to look into the history of the
accepted " Law of Nations," from the days of the Emperor
Justinian until now.

The Eoman jurisconsults employed as synonymous, says
Wheaton, "the two expressions, 'jus gentium,' that law which
is found among all the known nations of the earth, and * jus
naturale,' founded on the general nature of mankind ; never-
theless, of these two forms of the same idea, the first ought to
be considered as predominant, since it as well as the 'jus civile'
was a positive law, the origin and development of which must
be sought for in history."
Nations being simply, as Vattel defines them, " societies of

INTRODUCTORY. 10

men united together," it is plain that, if there be such a thing
as the " law of nature," which men as individuals are bound to
obey, that law is also obligatory on the " societies " made up
of men thus " united."

Hobbes divides the law of nature into that of man and that
of States, saying, " The maxims of each of these laws are pre-
cisely the same ; but as States, once established, assume per-
sonal properties, that which is termed the natural law when we
speak of the duties of individuals is called the law of nations
when applied to whole nations or States." The Emperor Jus-
tinian said, " The law of nations is common to the whole hu-
man race."

Grotius draws the distinction between the law of nature and
the law of nations thus : " When several persons at different
times and in various places maintain the same thing as certain,
such coincidence of sentiment must be attributed to some gen-
eral cause. Now, in the. questions before us, that cause must
necessarily be one or the other of these two — either a just con-
sequence drawn from natural principles, or a universal consent ;
the former discovers to us the law of nature, and the latter the
law of nations."

Vattel defines the "necessary law of nations" to be the "ap-
plication of the law of nature to nations." He says : " It is
1 necessary,' because nations are absolutely bound to observe it.
This law contains the precepts prescribed by the law of nature
to States, on whom that law is not less obligatory than on indi-
viduals ; since States are composed of men, their resolutions are
taken by men, and the law of nations is binding on all men,
under whatever relation they act. This is the law which
Grotius, and those who follow him, call the Internal Law of
Nations, on account of its being obligatory on nations in the
point of conscience."

Vattel says again: " Nations being composed of men natural-
ly free and independent, and who before the establishment of

20 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

civil societies lived together in the state of nature, nations or
sovereign States are to be considered as so many free persons
jiving together in the state of nature."

And again : " Since men are naturally equal, and a perfect
equality prevails in their right and obligations as equally pro-
ceeding from nature, nations composed of men, and considered
as so many free persons living together in the state of nature,
are naturally equal, and inherit from nature the same obliga-
tions and rights. Power or weakness docs not in this respect
produce any difference. A dwarf is as much a man as a giant ;
a small republic no less a sovereign State than the most power-
ful kingdom."

In these two last sentences is touched the key-note of the
true law of nations, as well as of the true law for individuals —
justice. There is among some of the later writers on juris-
prudence a certain fashion of condescending speech in their
quotations from Vattel. As years have gone on, and States
have grown more powerful, and their relations more compli-
cated by reason of selfishness and riches, less and less has been
said about the law of nature as a component and unalterable
part of the law of nations. Fine subtleties of definition, of
limitation have been attempted. Hundreds of pages are full
of apparently learned discriminations between the parts of that
law which are based on the law of nature and the parts which
are based on the consent and usage of nations. But the two
cannot be separated No amount of legality of phrase can do
away with the inalienable truth underlying it. Wheaton and
President Woolsey to-day say, in effect, the same thing which
Grotius said in 1615, and Vattel in 1758.

Says Wheaton: "International law, as understood among

civilized nations, may be defined as consisting of those rules of

conduct which reason deduces as consonant to justice from the

nature of the society existing among independent nations."

President Woolsey says: "International law, in a wide and

INTEODTTCTOEY. 21

abstract sense, would embrace those rules of intercourse be-
tween nations which are deduced from their rights and moral
claims ; or, in other words, it is the expression of the jural
and moral relations of States to one another.

" If international law were not made up of rules for which
reasons could be given satisfactory to man's intellectual and
moral nature, if it were not built on principles of right, it
would be even less of a science than is the code which governs
the actions of polite society,"

It is evident, therefore, that the one fundamental right, of
which the "law of nations" is at once the expression and the
guardian, is the right of every nation to just treatment from
other nations, the right of even the smallest republic equally
with " the most powerful kingdom." Just as the one funda-
mental right, of which civil law is the expression and guardian,
is the right of each individual to just treatment from every
other individual : a right indefeasible, inalienable, in nowise
lessened by weakness or strengthened by power — as majestic
in the person of "the dwarf" as in that of "the giant."

Of justice, Vattel says : " Justice is the basis of all society,
the sure bond of all commerce. * * *

" All nations are under a strict obligation to cultivate justice
toward each other, to observe it scrupulously and carefully,
to abstain from anything that may violate it. * * *

" The right of refusing to submit to injustice, of resisting
injustice by force if necessary, is part of the law of nature, and
as such recognized by the law of nations.

" In vain would Nature give us a right to refuse submitting
to injustice, in vain would she oblige others to be just in their
dealings with us, if we could not lawfully make use of force
when they refused to discharge this duty. The just would lie
at the mercy of avarice and injustice, and all their rights would
soon become useless. From the foregoing right arise, as two
distinct branches, first, the right of a just defence, which be-

22 A CBNTUBY OF DISHONOR.

longs to every nation, or the right of making war against who-
ever attacks her and her rights; and this is the foundation of
defensive war. Secondly, the right to obtain justice by force,
if we cannot obtain it otherwise, or to pursue our right by force
of arms. This is the foundation of offensive TOr."

Justice is pledged by men to each other by means of prom-
ises or contracts ; what promises and contracts are between
men, treaties are between nations.

President Woolsey says: "A contract is one of the highest
acts of human free-will : it is the will binding itself in regard
to the future, and surrendering its right to change a certain
expressed intention, so that it becomes3 morally and jurally, a
wrong to act otherwise.

" National contracts are even more solemn and sacred than
private ones, on account of the great interests involved ; of the
deliberateness with which the obligations are assumed ; of the
permanence and generality of the obligations, measured by the
national life, and including thousands of particular cases ; and
of each nation's calling, under God, to be a teacher of right to
all, within and without its borders.'*

Vattel says : " It is a settled point in natural law that he
who has made a promise to any one has conferred upon him a
real right to require the thing promised ; and, consequently,
that the breach of a perfect promise is a violation of another
person's right, and as evidently an act of injustice as it would
be to rob a man of his property. * * *

" There would 110 longer be any security, no longer any com-
merce between mankind, if they did not think themselves obliged
to keep faith with each other, and to perform their promises."
It is evident that the whole weight of the recognised and
accepted law of nations is thrown on the side of justice be-
tween nation and nation, and is the recognized and accepted
standard of the obligation involved in compacts between na-
tion and nation.

INTRODUCTORY. 23

We must look, then, among the accepted declarations of the
law of nations for the just and incontrovertible measure of the
shame of breaking national compacts, and of the wickedness of
the nations that dare to do it.

We shall go back to the earliest days of the world, and find
no dissent from, no qualification of the verdict of the infamy
of such acts. Livy says of leagues : " Leagues are such agree-
ments as are made by the command of the supreme power, and
whereby the whole nation is made liable to the wrath of God
if they infringe it."

Grotius opens his "Admonition," in conclusion of the third
book of his famous " Rights of War and Peace," as follows :
" t For it is by faith,' saith Cicero, ' that not commonwealths
only, but that grand society of nations is maintained.' * Take
away this,' saith Aristotle, 'and all human commerce fails.'
It is, therefore, an execrable thing to break faith on which so
many lives depend. 'It is,' saith Seneca, 'the best ornament
wherewith God hath beautified the rational soul ; the strongest
support of human society, which ought so much the more in-
violably to be kept by sovereign princes by how much they
may sin with greater license and impunity than other men.
Wherefore take away faith, and men are more fierce and cruel
than savage beasts, whose rage all men do horribly dread. Jus-
tice, indeed, in all other of her parts hath something that is
obscure ; but that whereunto we engage our faith is of itself
clear and evident ; yea, and to this very end do men pawn
their faith, that in their negotiations one with another all
doubts may be taken away, and every scruple removed. How
much more, then, doth it concern kings to keep their faith in-
violate, as well for conscience' sake as in regard to their honor
and reputation, wherein consists the authority of a king-
dom.' "

Vattol says : " Treaties are no better than empty words, if
nations do not consider them as respectable engagements, as

24 A CENTUEY OF DISHONOR,

rules which are to be inviolably observed by sovereigns, aiid
held sacred throughout the whole earth.

" The faith of treaties — that firm and sincere resolution, that
invariable constancy in fulfilling our engagements, of which we
make profession in a treaty — is therefore to be held sacred and
inviolable between the nations of the earth, whose safety and
repose it secures; and if mankind be not wilfully deficient in
their duty to themselves, infamy must ever be the portion of
him who violates his faith. * * *

" He who violates his treaties, violates at the same time the
law of nations, for he disregards the faith of treaties, that faith
which the law of nations declares sacred ; and, so far as de-
pendent on him, he renders it vain and ineffectual. Doubly
guilty, he does an injury to his ally, and he does an injury to
all nations, and inflicts a wound on the great society of man-
kind. * * *

"On the observance and execution of treaties," said a re-
spectable sovereign, " depends all the security which princes
and States have with respect to each other, and no dependence
could henceforward be placed in future conventions if the ex-
isting ones were not to be observed."

It is sometimes said, by those seeking to defend, or at least
palliate, the United States Government's repeated disregard of
its treaties with the Indians, that no Congress can be held re-
sponsible for the acts of the Congress preceding it, or can bind
the Congress following it ; or, in other words, that each Con-
gress may, if it chooses, undo all that has been done by previ-
ous Congresses. However true this may be of some legislative
acts, it is clearly not true, according to the principles of inter-
national law, of treaties.

On this point Yattel says : " Since public treaties, oven those
of a personal nature, concluded by a king, or by another sov-
ereign who is invested with sufficient power, are treaties of
State, and obligatory on the whole nation, real treaties, which

INTEODTTCTOEY. 25

were intended to subsist independently of the person who has
concluded them, arc undoubtedly binding on his successors ;
and the obligation which such treaties impose on the State
passes successively to all her rulers as soon as they assume the
public authority. The case is the same with respect to the
rights acquired by those treaties. They are acquired for the
State, and successively pass to her conductors."

Von Martens says : " Treaties, properly so called, are either
personal or real. They are personal when their continuation
in force depends on the person of the sovereign or his family,
with whom they have been contracted. They are real when
their duration depends on the State, independently of the per-
son who contracts. Consequently, all treaties between repub-
lics must be real. All treaties made for a time specified or
forever are real. * * *

"This division is of the greatest importance, because real
treaties never cease to be obligatory, except in cases where all
treaties become invalid. Every successor to the sovereignty, in
virtue of whatever title he may succeed, is obliged to observe
them without their being renewed at his accession."

Wheaton says : " They (treaties) continue to bind the State,
whatever intervening changes may take place in its internal
constitution or in the persons of its rulers. The State contin-
ues the same, notwithstanding such change, and consequently
the treaty relating to national objects remains in force so long
as the nation exists as an independent State."

There is no disagreement among authorities on this point.
It is also said by some, seeking to defend or palliate the Unitr
ed States Government's continuous violations of its treaties
with the Indians, that the practice of all nations has been and
is to abrogate a treaty whenever it saw good reason for doing
so. This is true ; but the treaties have been done away with
in one of two ways, either by a mutual and peaceful agreement
to that effect between the parties who had made it — the treaty

26 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

being considered in force until the consent of both parties to
its abrogation had been given — or by a distinct avowal on the
part of one nation of its intention no longer to abide by it,
and to take, therefore, its chances of being made war upon in
consequence. Neither of these courses has been pursued by
the United States Government in its treaty-breaking with the
Indians.

Vattel says, on the dissolution of treaties : " Treaties may be
dissolved by mutual consent at the free-will of the contracting
powers."

Grotius says : " If either party violate the League, the other
party is freed; because each Article of the League hath the
form and virtue of a condition."

Kent says : " The violation of any one article of a treaty is
a violation of the whole treaty. * * *

"It is a principle of universal jurisprudence that a compact
cannot he rescinded by one party only, if the other party docs
not consent to rescind it, and does no act to destroy it. * * *

" To recommence a war by breach of the articles of peace, is
deemed much more odious than to provoke a war by some
new demand or aggression; for the latter is simply injustice,
but in the former case the party is guilty both of perfidy and
injustice."

It is also said, with unanswerable irrelevancy, by some who
seek to defend or palliate the United States Government's con-
tinuous violation of its treaties with the Indians, that it was,
in the first place, absurd to make treaties 'with them at all, to
consider them in any sense as treaty -making powers or na-
tions. The logic of this assertion, made as a justification for
the breaking of several hundred treaties, concluded at different
times during the last hundred years, and broken as fast as
concluded, seems almost equal to that of the celebrated de-
fence in the case of the kettle, which was cracked when it was
lent, whole when returned, and, in fact, was never borrowed at

INTEODTTCTOET. 27

all. It would be a waste of words to reason with minds that
can see in this position any shelter for the United States Gov-
ernment against the accusation of perfidy in its treaty relations
with the Indians.

The statement is undoubtedly a true one, that the Indians,
having been placed in the anomalous position as tribes, of " do-
mestic dependent nations," and as individuals, in the still more
anomalous position of adult " wards," have not legally pos-
sessed the treaty-making power. Our right to put them, or
to consider them to be in those anomalous positions, might
be successfully disputed ; but they, helpless, having accepted
such positions, did, no doubt, thereby lose their right to be
treated with as nations. Nevertheless, that is neither here nor
there now : as soon as our Government was established, it pro-
ceeded to treat with them as nations by name and designation,
and with precisely the same forms and ratifications that it used
in treating with other nations ; and it continued to treat with
them as nations by name and designation, and with continually
increasing solemnity of asseveration of good intent and good
faith, for nearly a century. The robbery, the cruelty which
wore done under the cloak of this hundred years of treaty-
making and treaty - breaking, are greater than can be told.
Neither mountains nor deserts stayed them ; it took two seas
to set their bounds.

In 1871, Congress, either ashamed of making treaties only
to break them, or grudging the time, money, and paper it
wasted, passed an act to the effect that no Indian tribe should
hereafter be considered as a foreign nation with whom the
United States might contract by treaty. There seems to have
been at the time, in the minds of the men who passed this
act, a certain shadowy sense of some obligation being involved
in treaties ; for they added -to the act a proviso that it should
not be construed as invalidating any treaties already made.
But this sense of obligation must have been as short-lived as

28 A CENTUBY Off DISHONOR.

shadowy, and could have had no element of shame in it, since
they forthwith proceeded, unabashed> to negotiate still more
treaties with Indians, and break them ; for instance, the so-
called " Brunot Treaty " with the Ute Indians in Colorado, and
one with the Crow Indians in Montana — both made in the
summer of 1873. They were called at the time "conven-
tions " or " agreements," and not " treaties ;" but the differ-
ence is only in name.

They stated, in a succession of numbered articles, promises
of payment of moneys, and surrenders and cessions of land,
by both parties ; were to be ratified by Congress before taking
effect ; and were understood by the Indians agreeing to them
to be as binding as if they had been called treaties. The fact
that no man's sense of justice openly revolted against such
subterfuges, under the name of agreements, is only to be ex-
plained by the deterioration of the sense of honor in the na-
tion. In the days of Grotius there were men who failed to
see dishonor in a trick if profit came of it, and of such ho
wrote in words whose truth might sting to-day as, no doubt,
it stung then :

" Whereas there are many that think it superfluous to re-
quire that justice from a free people or their governors which
they exact daily from private men, the ground of this error is
this: because these men respect nothing in the law but the
profit that ariseth from it, which in private persons, being
single and unable to defend themselves, is plain and evident ;
but for great cities, that seem to have within themselves all
things necessary for their own well-being, it doth not so plain-
ly appear that they have any need of that virtue called jus-
tice which respects strangers."

These extracts from unquestioned authorities on internation-
al law prove that we may hold nations to standards of justice
and good faith as we hold men ; that tie standards arc the
same in each case ; and that a nation that steals and lies and

INTRODUCTORY. 33

breaks promises, will no more be respected or unj^g ag fljege
a man who steals and lies and breaks promises, JLIJ ? 79
to go still farther than this, and to show that a nat,c e Qr
ally guilty of such conduct might properly be dealt ^ycg-fcern
for by other nations, by nations in nowise suffering on ^hen
of her bad faith, except as all nations suffer when the iu ^
of human society are injured. ^ 0£

"The interest of human society," says Vattel, " would r(j
thorize all the other nations to form a confederacy, in order ^
humble and chastise the delinquent." * * * When a natio
"regards no right as sacred, the safety of the human race re«
quires that she should be repressed. To form and support an
unjust pretension is not only doing an injury to the party
whose interests are affected by that pretension ; but to despise
justice in general is doing an injury to all nations."

The history of the United States Government's repeated vio-
lations of faith with the Indians thus convicts us, as a nation,
not only of having outraged the principles of justice, which are
the basis of international law; and of having laid ourselves
open to the accusation of both cruelty and perfidy; but of
having made ourselves liable to all punishments which follow
upon such sins — to arbitrary punishment at the hands of any
civilized nation who might see fit to call us to account, and to
that more certain natural punishment which, sooner or later, as
surely comes from evil-doing as harvests come from sown seed.

To prove all this it is only necessary to study the history of
any one of the Indian tribes. I propose to give in the follow-
ing chapters merely outline sketches of the history of a few of
them, not entering more into details than is necessary to show
the repeated broken faith of the United States Government to-
ward them. A full history of the wrongs they have suffered
at the hands of tlio authorities, military and civil, and also of
the citizens of this country, it would take years to write and
volumes to hold.

28 A CENTURY OJF DISHONOR.

shadowy, and could have had no element of shame in it, since
they forthwith proceeded, unabashed, to negotiate still more
treaties with Indians, and break them ; for instance, the so-
called " Brunot Treaty " with the TJte Indians in Colorado, and
one with the Crow Indians in Montana — both made in the
summer of 1873. They were called at the time "conven-
tions" or "agreements," and not "treaties;" but the differ-
ence is only in name.

They stated, iii a succession of numbered articles, promises
of payment of moneys, and surrenders and cessions of land,
by both parties ; .were to be ratified by Congress before taking
effect ; and were understood by the Indians agreeing to them
to be as binding as if they had been called treaties. The fact
that no man's sense of justice openly revolted against such
subterfuges, under the name of agreements, is only to be ex-
plained by the deterioration of the sense of honor in the na-
tion. In the days of Grotius there were men who failed to
see dishonor in a tiick if profit came of it, and of such ho
wrote in words whose truth might sting to-day as, no doubt,
it stung then :

"Whereas there are many that think it superfluous to re-
quire that justice from a free people or their governors which
they exact daily from private men, the ground of this error is
this: because these men respect nothing in the law but the
profit that ariseth from it, which in private persons, being
single and unable to defend themselves, is plain and evident ;
but for great cities, that seem to have within themselves all
things necessary for their own well-being, it doth not so plain-
ly appear that they have any need of that virtue called jus-
tice which respects strangers."

These extracts from unquestioned authorities on internation-
al law prove that we may hold nations to standards of justice
and good faith as we hold men ; that the standards are the
same in each case ; and that a nation that steals and lies and

INTBODUCTORY.

33
breaks promises, will no more be respected or nnj,

a man who steals and lies and breaks promises. i?ncis as these,
to go still farther than this, and to show that a na$e^-' "
ally guilty of such conduct might properly be dealt \v-kenape, or
for by other nations, by nations in nowise suffering on Western
of her bad faith, except as all nations suffer when the iu
of human society are injured.

"The interest of human society," says Vattel, "would^ of
thorize all the other nations to form a confederacy, in orderor^
humble and chastise the delinquent." * * * When a natio10
" regards no right as sacred, the safety of the human race re^
quires that she should be repressed. To form and support an
unjust pretension is not only doing an injury to the party
whose interests are affected by that pretension ; but to despise
justice in general is doing an injury to all nations."

The history of the United States Government's repeated vio-
lations of faith with the Indians thus convicts us, as a nation,
not only of having outraged the principles of justice, which are
the basis of international law; and of having laid ourselves
opon to the accusation of both cruelty and perfidy ; but of
having made ourselves liable to all punishments which follow
upon such sins — to arbitrary punishment at the hands of any
civilized nation who might see fit to call us to account, and to
that more certain natural punishment which, sooner or later, as
surely comes from evil-doing as harvests come from sown seed.

To prove all this it is only necessary to study the history of
any one of the Indian tribes. I propose to give in the follow-
ing chapters merely outline sketches of the history of a few of
them, not entering more into details than is necessary to show
the repeated broken faith of the United States Government to-
ward tlicm. A full history of the wrongs they have sufferec
at the hands of the authorities, military and civil, and also o!
the citizens of this country, it would take years to write and
volumes to hold.

28 A CBNTUKY OF DISHONOR.

shadowy, and ut one hope of righting this wrong. It lies in
they forthv- heart and the conscience of the American people,
treaties wi£e°pte demand, Congress will do. It has been — to
called " B* be it spoken — at the demand of part of the people
one wit" these wrongs have been committed, these treaties bro-
summpiese robberies done, by the Government.
tions'l°ng as there remains on our frontier one square mile of
ence occupied by a weak and helpless owner, there will be a
rong and unscrupulous frontiersman ready to seize it, and a
o'eak and unscrupulous politician, who can be hired for a vote
x>r for money, to back him.

The only thing that can stay this is a mighty outspoken
sentiment and purpose of the great body of the people. Right
sentiment and right purpose in a Senator here and there, and
a Representative here and there, are little more than straws
which make momentary eddies, but do not obstruct the tide.
The precedents of a century's unhindered and profitable rob-
bery have mounted up into a very Gibraltar of defence and
shelter to those who care for nothing but safety and gain.
That such precedents should be held, and openly avowed as
standards, is only one more infamy added to the list. Were
such logic employed in the case of an individual man, how
quick would all men sec its enormity. Suppose that a man
had had the misfortune to be born into a family whoso naino
had been blackened by generations of criminals ; that his father,
his grandfather, and his great-grandfather before them had
lived in prisons, and died on scaffolds, should that man say
in his soul, "Go to! What is the use? I also will commit
robbery and murder, and get the same gain by it which my
family must have done?" Or shall he say in his soul, "God
help me I I will do what may be within the power of one
man, and the compass of one generation, to atone for the
wickedness, and to make clean the name of my dishonored
house 1"

INTRODUCTORY.

33

What an opportunity for the Congress of 1881
self with a lustre of glory, as the first to cut short ends as these-
record of cruelties and perjuries ! the first to attef
deem the name of the United States from the stain LeiiaPe» or
tury of dishonor I

A CENTUBT Otf DISllONOB.

CHAPTER II.

THE DELAWARES.

WHEN Hendrik Hudson anchored his ship, the Half Moon,
off New York Island in 1609, the Dclawarcs stood in great
numbers on the shore to receive him, exclaiming, in their inno-
cence, " Behold ! the gods have come to visit us !"

More than a hundred years later, the traditions of this event
were still current in the tribe. The aged Moravian missionary,
Heckewelder, writing in 1818, says :

"I at one time, in April, 1787, was astonished when I heard1
one of their orators, a great chief of the Dclawares, Pachg-nnls-
chilias by name, go over this ground, recapitulating the most
extraordinary events which had before happened, and conclud-
ing in these words : ' I admit that there arc good white men,
but they bear no proportion to the bad ; the bad must be the
strongest, for they rule. They do what they please. They en-
slave those who are not of their color, although created by the
same Great Spirit who created them. They would make slaves
of us if they could; but as they cannot do it, they kill us.
There is no faith to be placed in their words. They are not
like the Indians, who are only enemies while at war, and are
friends in peace. They will say to an Indian, " My friend ;
my brother!" They will take him by the hand, and, at the
same moment, destroy him. And so you' (he was addressing
himself to the Christian Indians at Gnadcnhuttcn, Pennsylva-
nia) ' will also be treated by them before long. Remember thai

THE DELAWARES. 35

made that old alliance with us; they having lost caste in
their tribe for having fought on our side.

"It is agreed," says the final Article of the treaty, "that the
Delaware chiefs, Kelelamand, or Lieut-colonel Henry, Henque
Pushccs, or the Big Cat, and Wicocalind, or Captain White
Eyes, who took up the hatchet for the United States, and their
families, shall be received into the Delaware Nation in the same
situation and rank as before the war, and enjoy their due por-
tions of the lands given to the Wyandotte and Delaware nations
in this treaty, as fully as if they had not taken part with Amer-
ica, or as any other person or persons in the said nations."

This Captain White Eyes had adhered to our cause in spite
of great opposition from the hostile part of the tribe. At one
time he was threatened with a violent death if he should dare
to say one word for the American cause; but by spirited ha-
rangues he succeeded in keeping the enthusiasm of his own
party centred around himself, and finally carrying them over to
the side of the United States. Some of his speeches are on rec-
ord, and are worthy to be remembered :

" If you will go out in this war," he said to them at one
time, when the band were inclined to join the British, " you
shall not go without me. I have taken peace measures, it is
true, with the view of saving my tribe from destruction ; but if
you think me in the wrong, if you give more credit to runaway
vagabonds than to your own friends — to a man, to a warrior,
to a Delaware — if you insist on fighting the Americans — go !
and I will go with you. And I will not go like the bear-hunt-
er, who sets his dogs on the animal to be beaten about with his
paws, while he keeps himself at a safe distance. No ; I will
lead you on ; I will place myself in the front ; I will fall with
the first of you ! You can do as you choose ; but as for me, I
will not survive my nation. I will not live to bewail the mis-
erable destruction of a brave people, who deserved, as you do,
a better fate."

86 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

Were there many speeches made by commanders to their
troops in thoso revolutionary days with which these words do
not compare favorably ?

This treaty, by which our faithful ally, Wicocalind, was re-
instated in his tribal rant, was made at Fort M'Intosli in
1785. The Wyandottcs, Chippewas, and Ottawas, as well as
the Delawares, joined in it. They acknowledged themselves
and all their tribes to be " under the protection of the United
States, and of no other sovereign whatsoever." The United
-S4atesGoverninent reserved "the post of Detroit" and an
outlying, district around it; also, the post at Michilimackinac,
with a sutrounding district of twelve miles square, and some
other reserves for trading-posts.

The Indians' "fends were comprised within lines partly indi-
cated by the Cuyahoga, Big Miami, and Ohio rivers and their
branches; it fronted on Lake Erie; and if "any citizen of the
United States," or "any other person not an Indian," attempt-
ed "to settle on any of the lands allotted to the Delaware and
Wyandotte nations in this treaty "—the fifth Article of the
treaty said — " the Indians may punish him as they please."

Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania*, all are largely made
up of the lands which were by this first treaty given to the
Indians.

Five years later, by another treaty at Fort llarmar, the pro-
visions of this treaty were reiterated, the boundaries somewhat
changed and more accurately defined. Tho privilege of hunt-
ing on all the lands reserved to the United States was prom-
ised to the Indians "without hindcranco or molestation, so long
as they behaved themselves peaceably;" and "that nothing
may interrupt the peace and harmony now established between
the United States and the aforesaid nations," it was promised
in one of the articles that white men committing offences or
murders on Indians should be punished in the same way as
Indians committing such offences.

THE DBLA WARES. 37

The year before this treaty Congress had resolved that " tho
sum of $20,000, in addition to the $14,000 already appropri-
ated, be appropriated for defraying the expenses of the treaties
which have been ordered, or which may be ordered to be held,
in the present year, with the several Indian tribes in the North-
ern Department ; and for extinguishing the Indian claims, the
whole of the said $20,000, together with $6000 of the said
$14,000, to be applied solely to the purpose of extinguishing
Indian claims to the lands they have already ceded to the
United States by obtaining regular conveyances for the same;
and for extending a purchase beyond the limits hitherto fixed
by treaty."

Here is one of the earliest records of the principle and
method on which the United States Government first began
its dealings with. Indians. "Regular conveyances," "extin-
guishing claims" by "extending purchase." These are all
the strictest of legal terms, and admit of no double interpre-
tations.

The Indians had been much dissatisfied ever since the first
treaties were made. They claimed that they had been made
by a few only, representing a part of the tribe; and, in 1786,
they had held a great council on the banks of the Detroit
River, and sent a message to Congress, of which the following
extracts will show the spirit.

They said : " It is now more than three years since peace
was made between the King of Great Britain and you ; but
we, the Indians, were disappointed, finding ourselves not in-
cluded in that peace according to our expectations, for we
thought that its conclusion would have promoted a friendship
between the United States and the Indians, and that we might
enjoy that happiness that formerly subsisted between us and
our Elder Brethren. We have received two very agreeable
messages from the Thirteen United States. We also received
a message from the king, whose war we were engaged in, de-

18 A. CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

siring us to remain quiet, which we accordingly complied with.
During this timo of tranquillity we were deliberating the best
nethod we could to form a lasting reconciliation with the Thir-
teen United States. * * * We arc still of the same opinion
as to the means which may tend to reconcile us to each other ;
and we are sorry to find, although we had the best thoughts
in our minds during the before-mentioned period, mischief has
nevertheless happened between you and us. We are still anx-
ious of putting our plan of accommodation into execution, and
we shall briefly inform you of the means that seem most prob-
able to us of effecting a firm and lasting peace and reconcilia-
tion, the first step toward which should, in our opinion, be
that all treaties carried on with the United States on our parts
should be with the general will of the whole confederacy, and
carried on in the most open manner, without any restraint on
either side ; and especially as landed matters are often the sub-
ject of our councils with you — a matter of the greatest impor-
tance and of general concern to us — in this case we hold it
indisputably necessary that any cession of our lands should be
made in the most public manner, and by the united voice of
the confederacy, holding all partial treaties as void and of no
effect. * * * We say, let us meet half-way, and let us pur-
sue such steps as become upright and honest men. AVe beg
that you will prevent your surveyors and other people from
coming upon our side of the Ohio River."

These are touching words, when we remember that only
the year before the United States had expressly told these In-
dians that if any white citizens attempted to settle on their
lands they might " punish them as they pleased."

" Wo have told you before we wished to pursue just steps,
and we are determined they shall appear just and reasonable in
the eyes of the world. This is the determination of all tho
chiefs of our confederacy now assembled Lore, notwithstanding
the accidents that have happened in our villages, oveu when in

THE DELAWABES. 39

council, where several innocent chiefs were lulled when abso-
lutely engaged in promoting a peace with yon, the Thirteen
United States."

The next year the President instructed the governor of the
territory northwest of the Ohio to " examine carefully into the
real temper of the Indian tribes " in his department, and says :
" The treaties which have been made may be examined, but
must not be departed from, unless a change of boundary ben-
eficial to the United States can be obtained." He says also :
"You will not neglect any opportunity that may offer of extin-
guishing the Indian rights to the westward, as far as the Mis-

Beyond that river even the wildest dream of greed did not
at that time look.

The President adds, moreover : " You may stipulate that any
white persons going over the said boundaries without a license
from the proper officers of the United States may be treated
in such manner as the Indians may see fit."

I have not yet seen, in any accounts of the Indian hostilities
on the North-western frontier during this period, any reference
to those repeated permissions given by the United States to
the Indians, to defend their lands as they saw fit. Probably
the greater number of the pioneer settlers were as ignorant of
these provisions in Indian treaties as are the greater number of
American citizens to-day, who are honestly unaware — and being
unaware, are therefore incredulous — that the Indians had either
provocation or right to kill intruders on their lands.

At this time separate treaties were made with the Six Na-
tions, and the governor says that these treaties were made sep-
arately because of the jealousy and hostility existing between
them and the Dclawares, Wyandottes, etc., which he is " not
willing to lessen," because it weakens their power. " Indeed,"
ho frankly adds, "it would not be very difficult, if circum-
stances required it, to set them at deadly variance."

40 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

Thus early in our history was the ingenious plan evolved of
first maddening the Indians into war, and then falling upon
them with exterminating punishment. The gentleman who
has left on the official records of his country his claim to the
first suggestion and recommendation of this method is "Arthur
Si Glair, governor of the territory of the United States north-
west of the Ohio River, and commissioner plenipotentiary of
the United States of America for removing all causes of con-
troversy, regulating trade, and settling boundaries with the In-
dian nations in the Northern Department."

Under all these conditions, it is not a matter of wonder that
the frontier was a scene of perpetual devastation and blood-
shed ; and that, year by year, there grew stronger in the minds
of the whites a terror and hatred of Indians ; and in the minds
of the Indians a stronger and stronger distrust and hatred of
the whites.

The Delawares were, through the earlier part of these trou-
bled times, friendly. lu 1791 we find the Secretary of War
recommending the commissioners sent to treat with the hostile
Miamis and Wabash Indians to stop by the way with the
friendly Delawares, and take some of their leading chiefs with
them as allies. He says, "those tribes arc our friends," ami,
as far as is known, "the treaties have been well observed by
them."

But in 1*792 we find them mentioned among the hostile
tribes to whom was sent a message from the United St;te
Government, containing the following extraordinary para-
graphs :

"Brethren: The President of the United States ontrrtnins
the opinion that the war which exists is an error and mist:ilco
on your parts. That you bclievo the United Shitt* want, to
deprive you of your lands, and drive you out of the (Country.
Be assured that this is not so; on the contrary, Dial wo should
be greatly gratified with the opportunity of hnjourting to yuu

.THE DBLA^WABES. 41

all the blessings of civilized life; of teaching you to cultivate
the earth, and raise corn ; to raise oxen, sheep, and other do^
mestic animals ; to build comfortable houses ; and to educate
your children so as ever to dwell upon the land.

" Consult, therefore, upon the great object of peace ; call in
your parties, and enjoin a cessation of all further depredations;
and as many of the principal chiefs as shall choose repair to
Philadelphia, the seat of the Great Government, and there
make a peace founded on the principles of justice and human-
ity. Remember that no additional lands will be required of
you, or any other tribe, to those that have been ceded by former
treaties."

It was in this same year, also, that General Putnam said to
them, in a speech at Post Vincennes : " The United States
don't mean to wrong you out of your lands. They don't
want to take away your lands by force. They want to do you
justice." And the venerable missionary, Heckewelder, who had
journeyed all the way from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to try to
help bring about peace, said to them, " The great chief who
has spoken to you is a good man. He loves you, and will al-
ways speak the truth to you. I wish you to listen to his words,
and do as he desires you."

In 1793 a great council was held, to which came the chiefs
and headmen of the Delawares, and of twelve other tribes,
to meet commissioners of the United States, for one last ef-
fort to settle the vexed boundary question. The records of
this council arc profoundly touching. The Indians reitera-
ted over aud over the provisions of the old treaties which
had established the Ohio River as one of their boundaries.
Their words wore not the words of ignorant barbarians, clum-
sily and doggedly holding to a point ; they were the words of
clear-headed, statesman-like rulers, insisting on the rights of
their nations. As the days went on, and it became more and
more clear that the United States commissioners would not

42 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

agree to the establishment of the boundary for which the In-
dians contended, the speeches of the chiefs grow sadder and
sadder. Finally, in desperation, as a last hope, they propose to
the commissioners that all the money which the United States
offers to pay to them for their lands shall be given to the white
settlers to induce them to move away. They say :

" Money to us is of no value, and to most of us unknown ;
and as no consideration whatever can induce us to sell the lands
on which we get sustenance for our -women and children, we
hope we may be allowed to point out a mode by which your
settlers may he easily removed, and peace thereby obtained.

" We know that these settlers are poor, or they would never
have ventured to live in a country which has been in continual
trouble ever since they crossed the Ohio. Divide, therefore,
this large sum of money which you have offered us among
these people ; give to each, also, a proportion of what you say
you would give to us annually, over and above this very large
sum of money, and we are persuaded they would most readily
accept of it in lieu of the lands you sold them. If you add,
also, the great sums you must expend in raising and paying
armies with a view to force us to yield you our country, you
will certainly have more than sufficient for the purpose of re-
paying these settlers for all their labor and their improve-
ments.

"You have talked to us about concessions. It appears
strange that you should expect any from us, who have only
been defending our just rights against your invasions. We
want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be ene-
mies no longer.

" * * * We desire you to consider, brothers, that our only
demand is the peaceable possession of a small part of our once
great country. Look back and review the lands from whence
we have been driven to this spot. We can retreat no farther,
because the country behind hardly affords food for its present

THE DELA WARES. 43

inhabitants, and we have therefore resolved to leave our bones
in this small space to which we are now confined."

The commissioners replied that to make the Ohio River the
boundary was now impossible; that they sincerely regretted
that peace could not be made ; but, " knowing the upright and
liberal views of the United States," they trust that "impartial
judges will not attribute the continuance of the war to them."

Notice was sent to the governor that the Indians " refused
to make peace ;" and General Anthony Wayne, a few weeks
later, wrote to the Secretary of War, " The safety of the West-
ern frontiers, the reputation of the legion, the dignity and in-
terest of the nation — all forbid a retrograde manosuvre, or giv-
ing up one inch of ground we now possess, till the enemy are
compelled to sue for peace."

The history of the campaigns that followed is to be found in
many volumes treating of the pioneer life of Ohio and other
North-western States. One letter of General Wayne's to the
Secretary of War, in August, 1794, contains a paragraph which
is interesting, as showing the habits and method of life of the
people whom we at this time, by force of arms, drove out
from their homos — homes which we had only a few years be-
fore solemnly guaranteed to them, even giving them permission
to punish any white intruders there as they saw fit. By a
feint of approaching Grand Glaize through the Miami villages,
General Wayne surprised the settlement, and the Indians, be-
ing warned by a deserter, had barely time to flee for their
lives. What General Wayne had intended to do may be in-
ferred from this sentence in his letter: "I have good grounds
to conclude that the defection of this villain prevented the
enemy from receiving a fatal blow at tliis place when least
expected."

Ilowcvcr, he consoles himself by the fact that he has
" gained possession of the grand emporium of the hostile In-
dians of the West without loss of blood. The very extensive

44 A CEOTUKY OF DISHONOR.

and highly cultivated fields and gardens show the work of
many hands. The margins of those beautiful rivers— the Mi-
amis, of the Lake, and Au G-laize— appear like one continued
village for a number of miles, both above and below this place;
nor have I ever before beheld such immense fields of corn in
any part of America, from Canada to Florida."

All these villages were burnt, and all these cornfields de-
stroyed ; the Indians were followed up and defeated in a sharp
fight. The British agents did their best to keep them hostile,
and no inconsiderable aid was furnished to them from Canada.
But after a winter of suffering and hunger, and great vacilla-
tions of purpose, they finally decided to yield to the inevitable,
and in the summer of 1795 they are to be found once more
assembled in council, for the purpose of making a treaty ; once
more to be told by the representatives of the United States
Government that " the heart of General Washington, the Great
Ctiief of America, wishes for nothing so much as peace and
brotherly love ;" that " such is the justice and liberality of the
United States," that they will now a third time pay for lands;
and that they are " acting the part of a tender father to them
and their children in thus providing for them not only at pres-
ent, but forever."

Eleven hundred and thirty Indians (eleven tribes, besides
the Delawares, being represented) were parties to this treaty.
By this treaty nearly two-thirds of the present State of Ohio
were ceded to the United States ; and, in consideration of these
" cessions and relinquishments, and to manifest the liberality
of the United States as the great means of rendering this peace
strong and perpetual," the United States relinquished all claims
" to all other Indian lands northward of the River Ohio, east-
ward of the Mississippi, and westward and southward of tho
Great Lakes and the waters uniting them, according to the
boundary line agreed upon by the United States and the King
of Great Britain, in the treaty of peace made between them

THE DELAWAEES. 45

in the year 1783," with the exception of four tracts of land.
But it was stated to the Indians that these reservations were
not made "to annoy or impose the smallest degree of re-
straint on them in the quiet enjoyment and full possession
of their lands," but simply to " connect the settlements of the
people of the United States," and " to prove convenient and
advantageous to the different tribes of Indians residing and
hunting in their vicinity."

The fifth Article of the treaty is : " To prevent any misun-
derstanding about the Indian lands now relinquished by the
United States, it is explicitly declared that the meaning of that
relinquishment is this : that the Indian tribes who have a right
to those lands are quietly to enjoy them — hunting, planting,
and dwelling thereon 50 long as they please without any moles-
tation from the United States ; but when those tribes, or any
of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of
them, they are to be sold only to the United States ; and un-
til such sale the United States will protect all the said Indian
tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens
of the United States, and against all other white persons who
intrude on the same."

The sixth Article reiterates the old pledge, proved by the
last three years to be so worthless — that, " If any citizen of
the United States, or any other white person or persons, shall
presume to settle upon the lands now relinquished by the
United States, such citizen or other person shall be out of
the protection of the United States; and the Indian tribe
on whose land the settlement may be made may drive off the
settler, or punish him in such manner as they shall think fit."

The seventh Article gives the Indians the liberty " to hunt
within the territory and lands which they have now ceded to
tho United States, without hinderance or molestation, so long
as they demean themselves peaceably."

The United States agreed to pay to the Indians twenty

46 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

thousand dollars' worth of goods at once ; and " henceforward,
every year, forever, useful goods to the value of nine thousand
five hundred dollars," Peace was declared to be "established"
and "perpetual."

General Wayne told the Indians that they might believe
him, for he had never, "in a public capacity, told a lie;" and
one of the Indians said, with much more dignity, "The Great
Spirit above hears us, and I trust we shall not endeavor to de-
ceive each other."

In 1813, by a treaty at Vincennes, the bounds of the reser-
vation of the Post of St. Vincennes were defined, and the In-
dians, " as a mark of their regard and attachment to the Unit-
ed States, relinquished to the United States the great salt
spring on the Saline Creek."

In less than a year we made still another treaty with them
for the extinguishment of their title to a tract of land between
the Ohio and the Wabash rivers (which they sold to us for a
ten years' annuity of three hundred dollars, which was to be
" exclusively appropriated to ameliorating their condition and
promoting their civilization ") ; and in one year more still an-
other treaty, in which a still further cession of land was made
for a permanent annuity of one thousand dollars.

In August of this year General Harrison writes to the Secre-
tary of War that there are great dissensions between the Dela-
wares and Miamis in regard to some of the ceded lands, the
Miamis claiming that they had never consented to give them
up. General Harrison observes the most exact neutrality in
this matter, but says, "A knowledge of tSe value of land is fast
gaining ground among the Indians," and negotiations are be-
coming in consequence much more difficult. In the course of
this controversy, " one of the chiefs has said that he knew a
great part of the land was worth six dollars an acre."

It is only ten years since one of the chiefs of these same
tribes had said, " Money is to us of no value." However, they

THE DELAWABES. 47

must be yet very far from having reached any true estimate of
real values, as General Harrison adds: "From the best calcula-
tion I have been able to make, the tract now ceded contains
at least two millions of acres, and embraces some of the finest
lands in the Western country."

Cheap at one thousand dollars a year ! — even with the negro
man thrown in, which General Harrison tells the Secretary he
has ordered Captain Wells to purchase, and present to the
chief, The Turtle, and to draw on the United States Treasury
for the amount paid for him.

Four years later (1809) General Harrison is instructed by
the President " to take advantage of the most favorable mo-
ment for extinguishing the Indian title to the lands lying east
of the Wabash, and adjoining south ;" and the title was extin-
guished by the treaty of Fort Wayne — a little more money
paid, and a great deal of land given up.

In 1814 we made a treaty, simply of peace and friendship,
with the Delawares and several other tribes : they agreeing to
fight faithfully on our side against the English, and we agree-
ing to "confirm and establish all the boundaries" as they had
existed before the war.

In 1817 it was deemed advisable to make an effort to "ex-
tinguish the Indian title to all the lands claimed by them with-
in the limits of the State of Ohio. Two commissioners were
appointed, with great discretionary powers ; and a treaty was
concluded early in the autumn, by which there was ceded to
the United States nearly all the land to which the Indians had
claim in Ohio, a part of Indiana, and a part of Michigan.
This treaty was said by the Secretary of War to be "the
most important of any hitherto made with the Indians."
" The extent of the cession far exceeded " his most sanguine
expectations, and he had the honesty to admit that " there can
be no real or well-founded objection to the amount of the com'
pensation given for it, except that it is not an adequate one."

48 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

The commissioners who negotiated the treaty were appre-
hensive that they would be accused of having made too liberal
terms with the Indians, and in their report to the department
they enumerate apologetically the reasons which made it im-
possible for them to get the land cheaper. Mr. Cass says of
the terms : " Under any circumstances, they will fall infinitely
short of the pecuniary and political value of the country ob-
tained."

The Indians, parties to this treaty, surrendered by it almost
the last of their hunting-grounds, and would soon be driven to
depending wholly upon the cultivation of the soil.

In 1818 the Delawares again ceded land to the United
States — ceded all to which they laid claim in the State of In-
diana— and the United States promised to provide for them " a
country to reside in on the west side of the Mississippi," and
" to guarantee to them the peaceable possession " of the same.
They were to have four thousand dollars a year in addition to
all the sums promised by previous treaties, and they were to be
allowed to remain three years longer by sufferance in their
present homes. The Government also agreed to pay them for
their improvements on their lands, to give them a hundred and
twenty horses, and a " sufficient number of pirogues to aid in
transporting them to the west side of the Mississippi;" also
provisions for the journey.

In 1829 a supplementary Article was added to this treaty.
The United States Government began to show traces of com-
punction and pity. The Article says, " Whereas the Delaware
Nation are now willing to remove," it is agreed upon that the
country in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, select-
ed for their home, " shall be conveyed and forever secured by
the United States to the said Delaware Nation, as their per-
manent residence ; and the United States hereby pledges tiie
faith of the Government to guarantee to the said Delaware Na-
tion, forever, the quiet and peaceable and undisturbed enjoy-

THE DELAWABES. 49

ment of the same against the claims and assaults of all and ev-
ery other people whatever."

An additional permanent annuity of one thousand dollars is
promised; forty horses, "and the use of six wagons and ox-
teams to assist in removing heavy articles," provisions for the
journey, and one year's subsistence after they reach their new
home; also the erection of a grist and saw mill within two
years.

In 1833 the Secretary of War congratulated the country on
the fact that " the country north of the Ohio, east of the Mis-
sissippi, including the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the
Territory of Michigan as far as the Fox and Wisconsin rivers,"
has been practically " cleared of the embarrassments of Indian
relations," as there are not more than five thousand Indians, all
told, left in this whole region.

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the same year says
that it is " grateful to notice " how much the Indians' condition
is " ameliorated under the policy of removal." He says that
they, " protected by the strong arm of the Government, and
dwelling on lands distinctly and permanently established as
their own, enjoying a delightful climate and a fertile soil, turn
their attention to the cultivation of the earth, and abandon the
chase for the surer supply of domestic animals."

This commissioner apparently does not remember, perhaps
never read, the records of the great fields of corn which the
Dolawares had on the Miami River in 1795, and how they re-
turned twice that summer and replanted them, after General
Wayne had cut down and burnt the young crops. They had
"turned their attention to the cultivation of the soil" forty
years ago, and that was what came of it. We shall see how
ranch better worth while it may be for them to plant corn in
their new " permanent home," than it was in their last one.

The printed records of Indian Affairs for the first forty
years of this century are meagre and unsatisfactory. Had the

50 A CBNTUEY OP DISHONOR.

practice prevailed then, as at the present time, of printing full
annual reports for the different tribes, it would be possible to
know much which is now forever locked up in the traditions
and the memories of the Indians themselves. For ten years
after the making of this last quoted treaty, there is little of-
ficial mention of the Delawares by name, beyond the mention
in the fiscal reports of the sums paid to them as annuities and
for education. In 1833 the commissioner says, " The agent for
the Delawares and Shawnees states that he was shown cloth
that was spun and wove, and shirts and other clothing made
by the Indian girls."

In 1838 the Delawares are reported as cultivating one thou-
sand five hundred acres of land in grain and vegetables, and
raising a great many hogs, cattle, and horses. " They are a
brave, enterprising people," and " at peace with all neighboring
Indians."

Parties of them frequently make excursions into the Kocky
Mountains after beaver, and return with a rich reward, some-
times as much as one thousand dollars to an individual; but
their money is soon spent, chiefly for ardent spirits. The
agent says: "The only hinderance now in the way of the
Delawares, Shawnees, and Kickapoos is ardent spirits. * * *
These whiskey traffickers, who seem void of all conscience,
rob and murder many of these Indians ; I say rob — they will
get them drunk, and then take their horses, guns, or blankets
off their backs, regardless of how quick they may freeze to
death; I say they murder — if not directly, indirectly, they
furnish the weapon — they make them drunk, and, when drunk,
they kill their fellow-beings. Some freeze to death when drunk ;
several drunken Indians have been drowned in the Missouri
River this season, aiming to cross when drunk."

In 1844 the chiefs of the Delawares met together, and pre-
pared a remarkable document, which was forwarded to the
Secretary of War. In this paper they requested that all tho

THE DELAWARES. 51

school funds to which they were entitled by treaty provisions
might be paid to the Indian Manual Labor School near the
Fort Leavenworth Agency ; might be pledged to that school
for ten years to come, and that they might therefor be guaran-
teed the education and subsistence of Delaware children, not
exceeding fifty at any one time. It came out, in course of this
negotiation, that two thousand dollars were due them on ar-
rearages of their school fund.

The Secretary acceded to this request, but imposed five
conditions' upon it, of which the fourth seems worth chroni-
cling, as an indication of the helplessness of the Delawares in
the matter of the disposition of their own money : " The inter-
est to be paid annually when it may suit the Treasury ; and
this ratification to be subject to withdrawal, and the agreement
itself to rescission, and to be annulled at the pleasure of the
Department."

In 1845 the Delawares "raise a sufficiency to subsist on.
The women do a large portion of the work on the farms. In
many families, however, the women do not work on the farm.
They raise corn, pumpkins, beans, pease, cabbages, potatoes,
and many kinds of garden vegetables. Some few raise wheat
and oats. They have lately had built, out of their own means,
a good saw and grist mill, with two run of stones, one for corn
and the other for wheat. There is a constant stream, called
the Stranger, in their country that affords excellent water privi-
leges. On this stream their mills are built."

At this time they are waiting with much anxiety to see if
their " Great Father " will punish the Sioux, who have at two
different times attacked them, and murdered in all some thirty
men. "They say they do not wish to offend and disobey
their Great Father, and before they attempt to revenge them-
selves they will wait and see if their Great Father will compel
the Sioux to make reparation."

In 1848 "almost every family is well supplied with farming-

52 A CENTURY OP DISHOJSTOE.

stock; and they have raised abundance of corn, some wheat,
potatoes, oats, and garden vegetables ; have made butter and
cheese ; and raised fruit, etc., etc. They dwell in good log-
cabins, and some have extremely neat houses, well furnished.
They have their outhouses, stables, well-fenced lots, and some
have good barns." There are seventy scholars in one school
alone that are taught by the Friends ; and the teacher reports :
" It is truly astonishing to see the rapidity with which they
acquire knowledge. The boys work on the farm part of the
time, and soon learn how to do what they are set at. The
girls spend a part of their time in doing housework, sewing,
etc. Many of them do the sewing of their own, and some
of the clothes of the other children."

In 1853 the Delawares are recorded as being "among the
most remarkable of our colonized tribes. By their intrepidity
and varied enterprise they are distinguished in a high degree.
Besides being industrious farmers and herdsmen, they hunt
and trade all over the interior of the continent, carrying theiy
traffic beyond the Great Salt Lake, and exposing themselves to
a thousand perils."

Their agent gives, in his report for this year, a graphic ac-
count of an incident such as has only too often occurred on
our frontier. "A small party of Delawares, consisting of a
man, his squaw, and a lad about eighteen years of age, recent-
ly returning from the mountains, with the avails and profits of
a successful hunt and traffic, after they had commenced their
journey homeward the second day the man sickened and died.
Before he died he directed his squaw and the young man to
hasten home with their horses and mules — thirteen in number
— their money (four hundred and forty-five dollars), besides
many other articles of value. After a few days' travel, near
some of the forts on the Arkansas, they were overtaken by
four white men, deserters from the United States Array—three
on foot, and one riding a mule. The squaw and young man

THE DELAWABES. 53

loaned each of the men on foot a horse or mule to ride, and
furnished them with provisions. They all travelled on friend-
ly together for some six or seven days, till they arrived at
Cottonwood Creek, thirty-five or forty miles west of Council
Grove. One evening, while resting, the young man was killed
by these men ; and the squaw was also supposed by these
wretches to be dead, having had her throat cut badly and her
head fractured. The two were then dragged off in the grass,
supposed to be dead. The men gathered the mules, horses,
money, guns, blankets — all that they supposed of value — and
made for Jackson County, Missouri, where they disposed of the
stock as best they could, and three of them took steamer for
St. Louis. The squaw, on the day after, resuscitated ; and soon
discovering that her companion had been killed, and every-
thing they possessed had disappeared, she, in her feeble and
dangerous condition, took the road to Council Grove. The
fifth day, she says, she was overtaken by a Kaw Indian, and
brought into Council Grove, where the traders had every atten-
tion paid her, and sent a runner to the Delaware traders and
myself, and we soon succeeded in capturing one of the men
in Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, where he confessed the
whole tragedy — the murder, robbing, etc. The three others
had left for St. Louis. A telegraphic despatch to St. Louis,
however, had the desired effect, and the three men were taken
and brought back to Liberty, where, on trial before two jus-
tices of the peace, they were committed for trial in the District
Court of the United States for the State of Missouri. As fee-
ble as the squaw was, I was under the necessity of having her
taken to Liberty as a witness. She readily recognized and
pointed out in a large crowd of persons three of the prisoners.
I have caused four of the recovered mules and horses to be
turned over to the unfortunate squaw. I expect to recover
two or three more ; the balance, I am of opinion, will never be
obtained."

54 A CEOTUBY OF DISHONOR

In the report of the Indian Commissioner for this year
there is also a paragraph which should not be omitted from
this sketch: "The present seems to be an appropriate occa-
sion for calling the attention of Congress to certain treaty stip-
ulations with various Indian tribes which the Government, for
a number of years, has failed to execute. In consideration
of the cession of their lands to the United States " — by some
nine tribes of the Mississippi and Missouri regions, among
whom were the Delawares — "it was stipulated on the part
of the Government that certain sums should be paid to said
tribes, amounting in the aggregate to $2,396,600, and that
the same should be invested in safe and profitable stocks,
yielding an interest of not less than five per cent, per an-
num.

" Owing, however, to the embarrassed condition of the Treas-
ury, it was deemed advisable by Congress, in lieu of making
the investments, to appropriate from year to year a sum equal
to the annual interest at five per cent, on the several amounts
required to be invested. On this amount the Government has
already paid from its treasury $1,742,240 — a sum which is
now equal to two-thirds of the principal, and will in a few
years be equal to the whole, if the practice of appropriating
the interest be continued. As there is no limitation to the pe-
riod of these payments, such a policy indefinitely continued
would prove a most costly one to the Government. At the
end of every twenty years it will have paid from the public
treasury by way of interest the full amount of the stipulated
investments. * * * The public finances are in a prosperous con-
dition. Instead of fiscal embarrassment, there is now a redun-
dancy of money, and one of the vexed questions of the day is,
What shall be dono with the surplus in the Treasury ? Con-
sidering the premises, it seems to be quite clear that so much
thereof as may be necessary for the purpose should be prompt-
ly applied to the fulfilment of our treaty obligations."

THE DELAWARES. 55

In 1854 the influx of white settlers into Kansas was so
great, it became evident that the Indian reservations there could
not be kept intact ; and the Delawares made a large cession of
their lands back to the United States, to be restored to the
public domain. For this they were to receive ten thousand
dollars. The sixth Article of this treaty provided for the giv-
ing of annuities to their chiefs. " The Delawares feel now, as
heretofore, grateful to their old chiefs for their long and faith-
ful services. In former treaties, when their means were scanty,
they provided by small life annuities for the wants of the
chiefs, some of whom are now receiving them. These chiefs
are poor, and the Delawares believe it their duty to keep them
from want in their old age." The sum of ten thousand dollars,
therefore, was to be paid to their five chiefs — two hundred and
fifty dollars a year each.

Article second provided that the President should cause the
land now reserved for their permanent home to be surveyed
at any time when they desired it, in the same manner as the
ceded country was being surveyed for the white settlers.

In the following year their agent writes thus of the results
which have followed the opening of this large tract to white
settlers : " The Indians have experienced enough to shake their
confidence in the laws which govern the white race. The ir-
ruptions of intruders on their trust lands, their bloody dissen-
sions among themselves, outbreaks of party, etc., must necessa-
rily, to these unsophisticated people, have presented our system
of government in an unfavorable light.

" Numerous wrongs have been perpetrated on many parts of
the reserve ; the white men have wasted their most valuable
timber with an unsparing hand; the trust lands have been
greatly injured in consequence of the settlements made there-
on. The Indians have complained, but to no purpose. I have
found it useless to threaten legal proceedings.* * * The Gov-
ernment is bound in good faith to protect this people. * * *

56 A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

The agricultural portion of this tribe have done well this sea*
son; abundant crops of corn promise them a supply of food
for the ensuing year."

The simple-minded trustingness of these people is astonish-
ing. Even now they assent to an Article in this treaty which
says that, as the means arising from the sale of all this land
they had given up would he more than they could use, the
remainder should be "from time to time invested by the Pres-
ident of the United States in safe and profitable stocks ; the
principal to remain unimpaired, and the interest to be applied
annually for the civilization, education, and religious culture of
the Delaware people, and such other objects of a beneficial
character as in his judgment are proper and necessary," An-
other Article stipulates that, if any of the Delawares are worth-
less or idle, the President can withhold their share of the
moneys.

Article fifteenth says, gravely, " The primary object of this
instrument being to advance the interests and welfare of the
Delaware people, it is agreed that, if it prove insufficient to ef-
fect these ends from causes which cannot now be foreseen,
Congress may hereafter make such farther provision, by law
not inconsistent herewith, as experience may prove to be neces-
sary to promote the interests, peace, and happiness of the Del-
aware people."

In 1860 the United States made its next treaty with the
Delawares, in which they consented to give the Leavenworth,
Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company right of way and
certain lands in their reserve. In 1861 another treaty, in
which, as the railway company had not paid, and was not able
to pay, the $286,742 which it had promised to pay the Del-
awares, the President authorized the Commissioners of Indian
Affairs to take the bonds of said railroad for that amount,
and a mortgage on one hundred thousand acres of the land
which the Indians had sold to the railway company.

THE DBLAWABBS. 5?

There was another very curious bit of legislation in regard
to the Delawares this year, viz., an Act of Congress authorizing
the Secretary of the Treasury to enter on his books $423,990 26
to the credit of the Delawares; being the amount of bonds
which the United States had invested for the Delawares in
State bonds of Missouri, Tennessee, and North Carolina, and
which had been stolen while in the custody of Jacob Thomp-
son, late Secretary of the Interior, in whose department they
had been deposited for safe-keeping. (At the same time there
were stolen $66,735 belonging to the lowas, and $169,686 75
belonging to the confederated bands of KaskasMas, Peorias,
Piankeshaws, and Keas.)

In this year the Commissioner of Indian Affairs visited the
Delawares, and reported them well advanced in civilization, in
possession of comfortable dwellings and farms, with personal
property averaging one thousand dollars to an individual.
Many of them were traders, and travelled even to the bounda-
ries of California.

In 1862 two regiments of Delawares and Osages enlisted as
soldiers in an 'expedition to the Indian Territory, under Colonel
Wcer, who says of them : " The Indian soldiers have far ex-
ceeded the most sanguine expectations. They bore the brunt
of the fighting done by the expedition, and, had they been
properly sustained, would have effectually ended the sway of
the rebels in the Indian Territory."

There was during this year a terrible condition of affairs in
Kansas and the Indian Territory. The Indians were largely on
the side of the rebels ; yet, as the Indian Commissioner said in
his report for this year — a paragraph which is certainly a spe-
cies of Irish bull — " While the rebelling of a large portion of
most of the tribes abrogates treaty obligations, and places them
at our mercy, the very important fact should not be forgotten
that the Government first wholly failed to keep its treaty stip-
ulations with them in protecting them," " By withdrawing all

58 A OBNTUET OP DISHONOR.

the troops from the forts in the Indian Territory,'1 it left them
" at the mercy of the rehels." That is, we first broke the treaty ;
and then their subsequent failure to observe it " placed them at
our mercy !"

" It is," he says, " a well-known fact that in many instances
self-preservation compelled them to make the best terms they
could with the rebels ; and that this is the case has been proved
by a large number of them joining our army as soon as a suf-
ficient force had penetrated their country to make it safe for
them to do so."

The Delawares enlisted, in 1862, one hundred and seventy
men in the Union army, and this out of a population of only
two hundred males between the ages of eighteen and forty-five.
There was probably no instance in the .whole country of such
a ratio of volunteers as this. They were reported as being in
the army " tractable, sober, watchful, and obedient to the com-
mands of their superiors." They officered their own compa-
nies, and the use of spirituous liquors was strictly prohibited
among them — a fact the more remarkable, as drunkenness was
one of their chief vices at home.

Already, however, the " interests " of the white settlers in
Kansas were beginning to be clearly in opposition to the in-
terests of the Indians. " Circumscribed as they arc, and closely
surrounded by white settlements, I can sec nothing in the future
for them but destruction," says the commissioner. "I think it
is for the interest of the Indians that they be removed to some
other locality as soon as possible."

" Several of them have from fifty to one hundred acres of
land in cultivation, with comfortable dwellings, barns, and out-
houses. * * * All the families are domiciled in houses. * * *
Their crops of corn will yield largely. Nearly every family
will have a sufficiency for their own consumption, and many of
the larger farmers a surplus. * * * There are but few Delaware
children of the age of twelve or fourteen that cannot read."

THE DELAWAEES. 59

Here is a community of a thousand people, larger than many
of the farming villages in New England, for instance, " ths aver-
age of personal property amounting to one thousand dollars ;"
all living in their own houses, cultivating from fifty to one
hundred acres of land, nearly all the children in schools, and
yet it is for their " interest to be moved 1" The last sentence
of the following paragraph tells the story :

"When peace is restored to our country, a removal of all
the Indians in Kansas will certainly be advantageous to them
as well as to the State."

In 1863 their agent writes: "Since the question of the re-
moval of the Indians from Kansas has been agitated, improve-
ments have been much retarded among the Delawares and
other Indians in Kansas.

" I think they are sufficiently prepared to make new treaties
with the Government, * * * having in view settlement in the
Southern country of those who elect to emigrate, compensa-
tion for the homes they relinquish, and a permission to remain
in their present homes for all who are opposed to leaving
Kansas."

At this time, " one-half the adult population are in the vol-
unteer service of the United States. They make the best of .
soldiers, and arc highly valued by their officers. * * * No State
in the Union has furnished so many men for our armies, from
the same ratio of population, as has the Delaware tribe. * * *
The tribo has 3900 acres of land under cultivation, in corn,
wheat, oats, and potatoes." (And yet one-half the adult men
are away !)

In this year the Delawares, being "sufficiently prepared" to
make new treaties looking to their removal out of the way of
the white settlers in Kansas, petitioned the United States Gov-
ernment to permit them to take eight hundred dollars of their
annuity funds to pay the expense of sending a delegation of
their chiefs to the Rocky Mountains, to see if they could find

60 & CBNTITEY OF DISHONOR

there a country which would answer for their new home. The
commissioner advises that they should not be allowed to go
there, but to the Indian Territory, of which he says, " The
geographical situation is such that its occupation by lawless
whites can be more easily prevented than any other portion
of the country," " By common consent, this appears to be rec-
ognized as the Indian country, and I have strong hopes that it
will eventually prove for them a prosperous and happy home."

In 1864 their agent writes that the greater part of the per-
sonal property owned by the Dclawarcs is in stock, " which is
constantly being preyed upon by the whites, until it has be-
come so reduced that it is difficult to obtain a good animal in
the nation." He says he is unable, for the want of proper in-
formation, to determine what amount they had at the begin-
ning of the year, but believes, from observation, " that it has
undergone a depletion to the extent of twenty thousand dol-
lars in the past year."

What a picture of a distressed community ! The men away
at war, old men, women, and children working the farms, and
twenty thousand dollars of stock stolen from them in one
year I

in 1865 a large proportion of those who had enlisted in the
United States Army were mustered out, and returned home.
The agent says : " It affords me great pleasure to chronicle the
continued loyalty of this tribe during the past four years ; and,
as events tend westward, they evince every disposition to aid
the Government by contributing their knowledge of the coun-
try to the officers of the army, and rendering such services
thereto as they are qualified to perform."

They " have distinguished themselves in many instances in
the conflicts on the borders ;" nevertheless, in this same year,
these discharged soldiers were prohibited by the Government
from carrying revolvers. When the commissioner instructed
the agent to disarm them, the agent very properly replied,

TUB DELAWARES. 61

stating the difficulties in the case: "Firstly, what disposition
is to be made of weapons taken forcibly from these Indians?
Secondly, many of these Indians are intelligent, only using
weapons when any well-disposed white person would have
done so ; and if one class is disarmed, all must be ;" on which
the commissioner so modified his order as to say that " peace-
ably disposed Indians " might keep the usual weapons used by
them in hunting ; but whenever they visited agencies or towns
they must deliver up all weapons to the agent, who would re-
ceipt for them, and return them " at proper times." This or-
der is to be enforced, if possible, by an " appeal to their better
judgment."

There are no records of the practical working of this order.
Very possibly it fell at once, by its own weight, into the al-
Teady large category of dead-letter laws in regard to Indians.
It is impossible to imagine an Indian who had served four
years as an officer in the army (for the Delawares officered
their own companies) submitting to be disarmed by an agent
on any day when he might need to go to Atchison on business.
Probably even that "appeal to his better judgment" which
the commissioner recommends, would only draw from him a
very forcible statement to the effect that any man who went
about in Kansas at that time unarmed was a fool.

In 1866 the Indian Commissioner reports that "the State
of Kansas is fast being filled by an energetic population who
appreciate good land ; and as the Indian reservations were se-
lected as being the best in the State, but one result can be ex-
pected to follow.

"Most of the Indians are anxious to move to the Indian
country south of Kansas, where white settlers cannot interfere
with them.

" Intermingled as the Kansas reservations are with the pub-
lic lands, and surrounded in most cases by white settlers who
too often act on the principle that an Indian has no rights

62 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

that a white man is bound to respect, they are iniured and
annoyed in many ways. Their stock are stolen, their fences
broken down, their timber destroyed, their young men plied
with whiskey, their women debauched ; so that, while the un-
civilized are kept in a worse than savage state, having the
crimes of civilization forced upon them, those farther advanced,
and disposed to honest industry, are discouraged beyond en-
durance."

In spite of all this the Delawares raised, in 1866, 72,000
bushels of grain, 13,000 bushels of potatoes, and owned 5000
head of cattle.

In July of this year a treaty was made with them, providing
for the removal to the Indian Territory of all who should not
decide to become citizens of Kansas, and the sale of their
lands. The superintendent of the Fort Leavenworth Agency
writes at this time : " The running of the Union Pacific Rail-
road through the Delawares' diminished reserve has been a
source of grievous annoyance and damage to the Delawares,
as has also an organization styled the Delaware Lumber Com-
pany. Out of these two companies grew much complaint and
investigation, resulting in the appointment of a special agent
to sell to the railroad the timber required for the construction
of the road, and no more. The Delaware Lumber Company
being thus restricted" (i. e., being prevented from helping
themselves to the Indians' timber), immediately "gave up
their business, and stopped their mills," but not before they
had damaged the Indians' property to the amount of twenty-
eight thousand dollars.

Twenty thousand dollars' worth of stock and twenty-eight
thousand dollars' worth of timber having been stolen in two
years from this little village of farmers, no wonder they are
" sufficiently prepared to move." Other causes have conspired
also to render them in haste to be gone. The perpetual expec-
tation of being obliged to remove had unsettled the whole com-

THE DELAWABES. 63

munity, and made them indifierent to effort and improvement.
The return of their young men from the war had also had a
demoralizing effect. Drunken frays were not uncommon, in
which deadly weapons were used, spite of the Department's
regulations for disarming all Indians.

In July of this year the Delaware chiefs, distressed by this
state of affairs, drew up for their nation a code of laws which
compare favorably with the laws of so-called civilized States.*

In 1867 the Delawares are said to be "very impatient to be
gone from their reserve, in order to build houses this autumn
for winter use, and to be fencing fields for the ensuing year at
their, new reserve." The annuities due them in April of this
year have not been paid till autumn, and this has delayed their
movements. Many of the young men are still away, acting as
scouts and guides in the army. In the course of this year and
the next the whole tribe moved by detachments to their new
home. " Those who removed during the winter went to work
in a laudable manner, and made their improvements — many
building comfortable houses and raising respectable crops" the
first season. They are said to be now in a fair way to be bet-
ter off than ever before. They have "given up their tribal or-
ganization and become Cherokee citizens. They report that
they are well pleased with their new homes ; and, being sepa-
rated from the many temptations by which they were sur-
rounded in their old reservation, are learning to appreciate the
many benefits to be derived from leading a temperate, indus-
trious, and consequently a prosperous and happy life."

In 1869 it is said that, "as soon as the final arrangement
relative to their funds is perfected, they will lose their nation-
ality and become identified with the Cherokees."

In 1870 we find nearly all the Delawares in Indian Territory;
but it seems that, owing to a carelessly surveyed boundary, some

* See Appendix, Art. 8.

64 A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

three hundred of them had settled down on lands which were
outside the Cherokee Reservation, and had been assigned by
the Government to the Osages. This unfortunate three hun-
dred, therefore, are removed again ; this time to the lands
of the Peorias, where they ask permission to establish them-
selves. But in the mean time, as they had made previous ar-
rangements with the Cherokees, and all their funds . had been
transferred to the Cherokee Nation, it is thought to be " very
unfortunate that they should be thus obliged to seek a new
home ;" and it is said to be " quite desirable that the parties in
interest should reconcile their unsettled affairs to mutual ad-
vantage."

We are too much inclined to read these records carelessly,
without trying to picture to ourselves the condition of affairs
which they represent. It has come to be such an accepted
thing in the history and fate of the Indian that he is to be
always pushed on, always in advance of what is called the
march of civilization, that to the average mind statements of
these repeated removals come with no startling force, and sug-
gest no vivid picture of details, only a sort of reassertion of an
abstract general principle. But pausing to consider for a mo-
ment what such statements actually mean and involve; imag-
ining such processes applied to some particular town or village
that we happen to be intimately acquainted with, we can soon
come to a new realization of the full bearing and import of
them ; such uprooting, such perplexity, such loss, such confu-
sion and uncertainty, inflicted once on any community of white
people anywhere in our land, would be considered quite enough
to destroy its energies and blight its prospects for years. It
may very well be questioned whether any of our small com-
munities would have recovered from such successive shocks,
changes, and forced migrations, as soon and as well as have
many of these Indian tribes. It is very certain that the.v would
not have submitted to them as patiently.

THE DELA WARES. 60

After this we find in the Official Reports no distinctive men-
tion of the Dela wares by name, except of a few who had bcjn
for some time living in the Indian Territory, and were not in-
cluded in the treaty provisions at the time of the removal from
Kansas. This little handful — eighty-one in number — is all that
now remain to bear the name of that strong and friendly peo-
ple to whom, a little more than one hundred years ago, we
promised that they should be our brothers forever, and be en-
titled to a representation in our Congress.

This band of Delawares is associated with six other dwin-
dled remnants of tribes — the Caddoes, lonies, Wichitas, To-
waconies, Wacoes, Keechies, and Comanches — on the Wichita
Agency, in Indian Territory.

They are all reported as being " peaceable, well disposed,"
and " actively engaged in agricultural pursuits."

Of the Delawares it is said, in 1878, that they were not able
to cultivate so much land as they had intended to during that
year, " on account of loss of stock by horse-thieves."

Even here, it seems, in that " Indian country south of Kansas,
where" (as they were told) "white settlers could not interfere
with them," enemies lie in wait for them, as of old, to rob and
destroy ; even here the Government is, as before, unable to pro-
tect them; and in all probability, the tragedies of 1866 and
1867 will before long be re-enacted with still sadder results.

3*

CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

CHAPTER IIL

THE CHEYENNES.

OUB first treaty with the Cheyennes was made in 1825, at
the mouth of the Teton River. It was merely a treaty of am-
ity and friendship, and acknowledgment on the part of the
Cheyennes of the "supremacy" of the United States. Two
years before this, President Monroe reported the "Cbayenes"
to be " a tribe of three thousand two hundred and fifty souls,
dwelling and hunting on a river of the same name, a western
tributary of the Missouri, a little above the Great Bend." Ten
years later, Catlin, the famous painter of Indians, met a " Shi-
enne" chief and squaw among the Sioux, and painted their
portraits. He says, " The Shiennes are a small tribe of about
three thousand in number, living neighbors to the Sioux on the
west of them, between the Black Hills and the Rocky Moun-
tains. There is no finer race of men than these in North Amer-
ica, and none superior in stature, except the Osagcs : scarcely a
man in the tribe full grown who is less than six feet in height."
They are " *he richest in horses of any tribe on the continent ;
living where d?e greatest herds of wild horses are grazing on
the prairies, which they catch in great numbers, and sell to the
Sioux, Mandans, and other tribes, as well as to the fur-traders.

" These people are the most desperate set of warriors and
horsemen, having carried on almost unceasing wars with the
Pawnees and Blackfeet. The chief was clothed in a handsome
dress of deer-skins, very neatly garnished with broad bands of
porcupine-quill work down the sleeves of his shirt and leg*

THE CHEYENNES. 67

gings. The woman was comely, and beautifully dressed. Her
dress of the mountain - sheepskin tastefully ornamented with
quills and beads, and her hair plaited in large braids that hung
down on her breast."

In 1837 the agent for the "Sioux, Cheyennes, and Poncas"
reports that " all these Indians live exclusively by the chase ;"
and that seems to be the sum and substance of his information
about them. He adds, also, that these remote wandering tribes
have a great fear of the border tribes, and wish to avoid them.
In 1838 the Cheyennes are reported as carrying on trade at a
post on the Arkansas River near the Santa Fe road, but still
depending on the chase.

In 1842 they are spoken of as a "wandering tribe on the
Platte ;" and in .the same year, Mr. D. D. Mitchell, Supt. of In-
dian Affairs, with his head-quarters at St. Louis, writes : " Gen-
erations will pass away before this territory " [the territory in
which the wild tribes of the Upper Mississippi were then wan-
dering] " becomes much more circumscribed ; for if we draw a
line running north and south, so as to cross the Missouri about
the mouth of the Vermilion River, we shall designate the limits
beyond which civilized men are never likely to settle. At this
point the Creator seems to have said to the tides of emigration
that are annually rolling toward the West, 'Thus far shalt thou
go, and no farther.' At all events, if they go beyond this, they
will never stop on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. The
utter destitution of timber, the sterility of sandy soil, together
with the coldness and dryness of the climate, furnish obstacles
which not even Yankee enterprise is likely to overcome. A
beneficent Creator seems to have intended this dreary region as
an asylum for the Indians, when the force of circumstances
shall have driven them from the last acre of the fertile soil
which they once possessed. Here no inducements are offered
to the ever-restless Saxon breed to erect their huts. * * * The
time may arrive when the whole of the Western Indians will be

68 A CBNTTJBY OF DISHONOR.

forced to seek a resting-place in this Great American Desert;
and tliis, in all probability, will form a new era in the history
of this singular and ill-fated race. They will remain a wander-
ing, half civilized, though happy people. 'Their flocks and
herds will cover a thousand hills,' dhd will furnish beef and
mutton for a portion of the dense population of whites that
will swarm in the more fertile sections of the great valley of
the Mississippi."

This line, recommended by Mr. Mitchell, runs just east of
Dakota, through the extreme eastern portion of Nebraska, a lit-
tle to the east of the middle of Kansas, through the middle of
Indian Territory and Texas, to the Gulf of Mexico. Montana,
Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico, all lie west of it.

The records of the War Department for 1846 contain an in-
teresting account of a visit made to all the wild tribes of the
Upper Missouri Agency — the Yankton Sioux, the Arrikarees,
Mandans, Assinaboines, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and others. In
reply to the agent's remonstrances with one of the Sioux chiefs
in regard to their perpetual warring with each other, the chief
" was very laconic and decided; remarking ' that if their great-
grandfather desired them to cease to war with their enemies,
why did he not send each of them a petticoat, and make squaws
of them at once f " This same chief refused to allow the boys
of his tribe to go to the Choctaw schools, saying, " They would
return, as the few did who went to St. Louis, drunkards, or die
on the way."

The Cheyennes and other Indians living on the Platte com-
plained bitterly of the passage of the emigrants through their
country. They said they ought to be compensated for the
right of way, and that the emigrants should be restricted by
law and the presence of a military force from burning the
grass, and from unnecessary destruction of game. They were
systematically plundered and demoralized by traders. Whiskey
was to bo had without difficulty; sugar and coffee were sold

THE CHEYENNES. 09

at one dollar a pound ; ten-cent calico at one dollar a yard ;
corn at seventy-five cents a gallon, and higher.

In 1847 a law was passed by Congress forbidding the intro-
duction of whiskey into the Indian country, and even the par-
tial enforcement of this law had a most happy effect. Fore-
most among those to acknowledge the benefits of it were the
traders themselves, who said that the Indians' demand for sub-
stantial articles of trade was augmented two hundred per cent.:
"They enjoy much better health, look much better, and are bet-
ter people. * * * You now rarely ever hear of a murder com-
mitted, whereas when whiskey was plenty in that country mur-
der was a daily occurrence." These Indians themselves were
said to be " opposed to the introduction of ardent spirits into
their country ; * * * but, like almost all other Indians, will use
it if you give it to them, and when under its influence are dan-
gerous and troublesome." There were at this time nearly forty-
six thousand of these Tipper Missouri Indians. Five bands of
them — " the Sioux, Cheyennes, Gros Yentres, Mandans, and Pon-
cas" — were " excellent Indians, devotedly attached to the white
man," living " in peace and friendship with our Government,"
and " entitled to the special favor and good opinion of the De-
partment for their uniform good conduct and pacific relations."

In 1848 it was estimated from the returns made by traders
that the trade of this agency amounted to $400,000. Among
the items were 25,000 buffalo tongues. In consequence of this
prosperity on the part of the Indians, there was a partial ces-
sation of hostilities on the whites; but it was still a perilous
journey to cross the plains, and in 1849 the necessity for mak-
ing some sort of treaty stipulations with all these wild tribes
begins to be forced emphatically upon the attention of the
United States Government. A safe highway across the conti*
nent must be opened. It is a noticeable thing, however, that,
even as late as this in the history of our diplomatic relations
with the Indian, his right to a certain control as well as occu-

70 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

pancy of the soil was instinctively recognized. The Secretary
of the Interior, in his report for 1 849, says : " The wild tribes
of Indians -who have their hunting-grounds in the great prairie
through which our emigrants to California pass, have, during
the year, been more than usually pacific. They have suffered
our people to pass through their country with little interrup-
tion, though they travelled in great numbers, and consumed on
their route much grass and game. For these the Indians ex-
pect compensation, and their claim is just."

The Secretary, therefore, concurs in the recommendation of
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that treaties be negotiated
with these tribes, stipulating for the right of way through their
country, and the use of grass and game, paying them therefor
small annuities in useful articles of merchandise, and agricult-
ural implements, and instruction. "The right of way" —
" through their country." A great deal is conceded, covered,
and conveyed by such phrases as these. If they mean any-
thing, they mean all that the Indians ever claimed.

The Indians were supposed to be influenced to this peace-
ableness and good-will more by a hope of rewards and gifts
than by a wholesome fear of the power of the Q-overnment ;
and it was proposed to take a delegation of chiefs to Washing-
ton, " in order that they may acquire some knowledge of our
greatness and strength, which will make a salutary impression
on them, and through them on their brethren," and " will tend
to influence them to continue peaceful relations'."

It begins to dawn upon the Government's perception that
peace is cheaper as well as kinder than war. " We never can
whip them into friendship," says one of the superintendents of
the Upper Missouri Agency. A treaty " can do no harm, and
the expense would be less than that of a six months' war. * * *
Justice as well as policy requires that we should make some re-
muneration for the damages these Indians sustain in conse-
quence of the destruction of their game, timber, etc., by thu
whites passing through their country."

THE CHEYENNES. 71

" Their game, timber," " their country," again. The perpet-
ual recun'ence of this possessive pronoun, and of such phrases
as these in all that the Government has said about the Indians,
and in all that it has said to them, is very significant.

In 1850 the Indian Commission writes that "it is much
to be regretted that no appropriation was made at the last ses-
sion of Congress for negotiating treaties with the wild tribes of
the plains. These Indians have long held undisputed posses-
sion of this extensive region; and, regarding it as their own,
they consider themselves entitled to compensation not only for
the right of way through their territory, but for the great and
injurious destruction of game, grass, and timber committed by
our troops and emigrants."

The bill providing for the negotiation of these treaties was
passed unanimously by the Senate, but " the unhappy difficul-
ties existing on the subject of slavery " delayed it in the House
until it was too late to be carried into effect.

All the tribes had been informed of this pending bill, and
were looking forward to it with great interest and anxiety. In
1849 they had all expressed themselves as "very anxious to be
instructed in agriculture and the civilized arts." Already the
buffalo herds were thinning and disappearing. From time im-
memorial the buffalo had furnished them food, clothing, and
shelter ; witb its disappearance, starvation stared them in the
face, and they knew it. There can be no doubt that at this
time all the wild tribes of the Upper Missouri region — the
Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahoes — were ready and anxious to es-
tablish friendly relations with the United States Government,
and to enter into some arrangement by which some means of
future subsistence, and some certainty of lands enough to live
on, could be secured to them. Meantime they hunted with
greater diligence than ever ; and in this one year alone had sold
to the fur-traders within the limits of one agency $330,000
wprth of buffalo -robes, and " furs, peltries, and miscellaneous

72 A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

goods to the amount of $60,000. What they thus receive fot
their furs, robes, etc., would be ample for their support," says
Hatton, " were it not that they have to give such exorbitant
prices for what they purchase from the whites."

In the winter and spring of 1850 all these tribes were visited
by an agent of the Government. He reported them as "friend-
ly disposed," but very impatient to come to some understand-
ing about the right of way. " This is what the Indians want,
and what they are anxious about ; having been told long since,
and so often repeated by travellers passing (who care little
about the consequences of promises so they slip through safely
and unmolested themselves), that their * Great Father ' would
soon reward them liberally for the right of way, the destruc-
tion of timber, game, etc., as well as for any kindness shown
Americans passing through their country."

In the summer of 1851 this much desired treaty was made.
Seven of the prairie and mountain tribes gathered in great
force at Fort Laramie. The report of this council contains
some interesting and noticeable points.

"We were eighteen days encamped together, during which
time the Indians conducted themselves in a manner that ex-
cited the admiration and surprise of every one. The different
tribes, although hereditary enemies, interchanged daily visits,
both in their individual and national capacities ; smoked and
feasted together; exchanged presents; adopted each other's
children, according to their own customs ; and did all that was
held sacred or solemn in the eyes of these Indians to prove
the sincerity of their peaceful and friendly intentions, both
among themselves and with the citizens of the United States
lawfully residing among them or passing through the country."

By this treaty the Indians formally conceded to the United
States the right to establish roads, military or otherwise,
throughout the Indian country, " so far as they claim or ex-
ercise ownership over it."

THE CHEYENNES. 73

Thoy agreed " to maintain peaceful relations among them-
selves, and to abstain from all depredations upon whites pass-
ing through their country, and to make restitution for any
damages or loss that a white man shall sustain by the acts of
their people."

For all the damages which they had suffered up to that time
in consequence of the passing of the whites through their coun-
try, they accepted the presents then received as payment in
full.

An annuity of $50,000 a year for fifty years to come was
promised to them. This was the price of the " right of way."

" Fifty thousand dollars for a limited period of years is a
small amount to be distributed among at least fifty thousand
Indians, especially when we consider that we have taken away,
or are rapidly taking away from them all means of support,"
says one of the makers of this treaty. There would probably
be no dissent from this opinion. A dollar a year, even assured
to one for fifty years, seems hardly an adequate compensation
for the surrender of all other "means of support."

The report continues : " Viewing the treaty in all its pro-
visions, I am clearly of opinion that it is the best that could
have been made for both parties. I am, moreover, of the opin-
ion that it will be observed and carried out in as good faith on
the part of the Indians as it will on the part of the United
States and the white people thereof. There was an earnest
solemnity and a deep conviction of the necessity of adopting
some such measures evident in the conduct and manners of
the Indians throughout the whole council. On leaving for
their respective homes, and bidding each other adieu, they gave
the strongest possible evidence of their friendly intentions for
the future, and the mutual confidence and good faith which
they had in each other. Invitations were freely given and as
freely accepted by each of the tribes to interchange visits, talk,
and smoke together like brothers, upon ground where they had

74 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

never before met except for the purpose of scalping each other.
This, to my mind, was conclusive evidence of the sincerity of
the Indians, and nothing but bad management or some un-
toward misfortune ever can break it."

The Secretary of the Interior, in his report for this year,
speaks with satisfaction of the treaties negotiated with Indians
during the year, and says : " It cannot be denied that most of
the depredations committed by the Indians on our frontiers
are the offspring of dire necessity. The advance of our popu-
lation compels them to relinquish their fertile lands, and seek
refuge in sterile regions which furnish neither corn nor game :
impelled by hunger, they seize the horses, mules, and cattle of
the pioneers, to relieve their wants and satisfy the cravings of
nature. They are immediately pursued, and, when overtaken,
severely punished. This creates a feeling of revenge on their
part, which seeks its gratification in outrages on the persons
and property of peaceable inhabitants. The whole country
then becomes excited, and a desolating war, attended with a
vast sacrifice of blood and treasure, ensues. This, it is believed,
is a true history of the origin of most of our Indian hostilities.

"All history admonishes us of the difficulty of civilizing a
wandering race who live mainly upon game. To tame a sav-
age you must tie him down to the soil. You must make him
understand the value of property, and the benefits of its sepa-
rate ownership. You must appeal to those selfish principles
implanted by Divine Providence in the nature of man for the
wisest purposes, and make them minister to civilization and
refinement. You must encourage the appropriation of lands
by individuals; attach them to their homes by the ties of in-
terest; teach them the uses of agriculture and the arts of
peace ; * * * and they should be taught to look forward to
the day when they may be elevated to the dignity of American
citizenship.

"By means like these we shall soon reap our reward in the

THE OHBTBNNES. 75

suppression of Indian depredations ; in the diminution of the
expenses of the Department of War ; in a valuable addition to
our productive population ; in the increase of our agriculture
and commerce; and in the proud consciousness that we have
removed from, our national escutcheon the stain left on it by
our acknowledged injustice to the Indian race."

"We find the Cheyennes, therefore, in 1851, pledged to peace
and good-will toward their Indian neighbors, and to the white
emigrants pouring through their country. For this conceded
right of way they are to have a dollar a year apiece, in " goods
and animals ;" and it is supposed that they will be able to eke
out this support by hunting buffaloes, which are still not ex-
tinct.

In 1852 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs writes: "Not-
withstanding the mountain and prairie Indians continue to suf-
fer from the vast number of emigrants who pass through their
country, destroying their means of support, and scattering dis-
ease and death among them, yet those who were parties to the
treaty concluded at Fort Laramie, in, the fall of 1851, have been
true to their obligations, and have remained at peace among
themselves and with the whites."

And the superintendent writes : " Congress made a very lib-
eral appropriation of $100,000 to make a treaty with the prai-
rie and mountain tribes. A very satisfactory treaty was made
with them last fall at Fort Laramie, the conditions of which,
on their part, have been faithfully observed — no depredations
having been committed during the past season by any of the
tribes parties to the Fort Laramie treaty. The Senate amended
the treaty, substituting fifteen instead of fifty years as the pe-
riod for which they were to have received an annual supply of
goods, animals, etc., at the discretion of the President. This
modification of the treaty I think very proper, as the condition
of these wandering hordes will be entirely changed during the
next fifteen years. The treaty, however, should have been sent

76 A CBNTTTEY OF DISHONOR.

back to the Indians for the purpose of obtaining their sanction
to the modification, as was done in the case of the Sioux treaty
negotiated by Commissioners Ramsey and Lea. It is hoped
this oversight "will be corrected as early as practicable next
spring, otherwise the large amounts already expended will have
been uselessly wasted, and the Indians far more dissatisfied
than ever."

To comment on the bad faith of this action on the part of
Congress would be a waste of words; but its impolicy is so
glaring that one's astonishment cannot keep silent — its impolicy
and also its incredible niggardliness. A dollar apiece a year,
"in goods, animals," etc., those Indians had been promised that
they should have for fifty years. It must have been patent
to the meanest intellect that this was little to pay each year
to any one man from whom we were taking away, as the com-
missioner said, "his means of support." But, unluckily for the
Indians, there were fifty thousand of them. It entered into
some thrifty Congressman's head to multiply fifty by fifty,
and the aggregate terrified everybody. This was much more
likely to have been the cause of the amendment than the cause
assigned by the superintendent, viz., the probable change of
localities of all the " wandering hordes " in the next fifteen
years. No doubt it would be troublesome to the last degree
to distribute fifty thousand dollars, " in goods, animals," etc., to
fifty thousand Indians wandering over the entire Upper Mis-
souri region ; but no more troublesome, surely, in the sixteenth
year than in the fifteenth. The sophistry is too transparent ;
it does not in the least gloss over the fact that, within the first
year after the making of our first treaty of any moment with
these tribes — while they to a man, the whole fifty thousand of
them, kept their faith with us — we broke ours with them in
the meanest of ways — robbing them of more than two-thirds
of the money we had promised to pay.

All the tribes " promptly " assented to this amendment, how-

THE CHEYENNES. 7J

ever ; so says the Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner
for 1853; and adds that, with a single exception, they have
maintained friendly relations among themselves, and "mani-
fested an increasing confidence in and kindness toward the
whites."

Some of them have begun to raise corn, beans, pumpkins,
etc., but depend chiefly on the hunt for their support. But
the agent who was sent to distribute to them their annuities,
and to secure their assent to the amendment to the treaty,
reports: "The Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, and many of
the Sioux, are actually in a starving state. They are in abject
want of food half the year, and their reliance for that scanty
supply, in the rapid decrease of the buffalo, is fast disappear-
ing. The travel upon the roads drives them off, or else con-
fines them to a narrow path during the period of emigration,
and the different tribes are forced to contend with hostile
nations in seeking support for their villages. Their women
are pinched with want, and their children constantly crying
with hunger. Their arms, moreover, are unfitted to the pur-
suit of smaller game, and thus the lapse of a few years pre-
sents only the prospect of a gradual famine." And in spite
of such suffering, these Indians commit no depredations, and
show increasing confidence in and kindness toward the whites.

This agent, who has passed many years among the Indians,
speaks with great feeling of the sad prospect staring them in
the face. He says: "But one course remains which promises
any permanent relief to them, or any lasting benefit to the
country in which they dwell; that is, simply to make such
modifications in the ' intercourse ' laws as will invite the resi-
dence of traders among them, and open the whole Indian Ter-
ritory for settlement. Trade is the only civilizer of the Indian.
It has been the precursor of all civilization heretofore, and it
will be of all hereafter. It teaches the Indian the value of
other things besides the spoils of the chase, and offers to him

78 A CEOTUEY OP DISHOKOE.

other pursuits and excitements than those of war. All obstruc-
tions to its freedom, therefore, only operate injuriously. * * *
The Indians would soon lose their nomadic character, and
forget the relations of tribes. * * * And this, while it would
avoid the cruel necessity of our present policy — to wit, extinc-
tion— would make them an element in the population, and
sharer in the prosperity of the country." He says of the
" system of removals, and congregating tribes in small parcels
of territory," that it has " eventuated injuriously on those who
have been subjected to it. It is the legalized murder of a
whole nation. It is expensive, vicious, and inhuman, and pro-
ducing these consequences, and these alone. The custom, being
judged by its fruits, should not be persisted in."

It is in the face of such statements, such protests as these,
that the United States Government has gone steadily on with
its policy, so called, in regard to the treatment of the Indian.

In 1854 the report from the Upper Missouri region is still
of peace and fidelity on the part of all the Indians who joined
in the Fort Laramie treaty. " Not a single instance of mur-
der, robbery, or other depredation has been committed by
them, either on the neighboring tribes parties to the treaty or
on whites. This is the more remarkable, as before the treaty
they were foremost in the van of thieves and robbers — always
at war, pillaging whoever they met, and annoying their own
traders in their own forts."

In the summer of this year the Cheyennes began to be dis-
satisfied and impertinent. At a gathering of the northern
band at Fort Laramie, one of the chiefs demanded that the
travel over the Platte road should be stopped. He also, if the
interpreter was to be relied on, said that next year the Govern-
ment must send them out one thousand white women for
wives. The Southern Cheyennes had given up to their agent
some Mexican prisoners whom they had taken in the spring,
and this act, it was supposed, had seemed to the northern band

THE CHEYENNES. 79

a needless interference on the part of the United States.
Moreover, it was a matter constantly open to the observation
of all friendly Indians that the hostiles, who were continually
plundering and attacking emigrant trains, made, on the whole,
more profit out of war than they made out of peace. On the
North Platte road during this year the Pawnees alone had
stolen several thousands of dollars' worth of goods ; and, in
addition to this, there was the pressure of public sentiment — a
thing which is as powerful among Indians as among whites. It
was popular to be on the war-path : the whites were invaders ;
it was brave and creditable to slay them. Taking all these things
into account, it was only to be wondered at that these Chey-
ennes, Arapahoes, and Sioux kept to the provisions of their
treaty at all. Nevertheless, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and
some bands of the Sioux continued peaceable and friendly;
and in 1855 they begged to be supplied with a farmer to
teach them how to farm ; also with a blacksmith. Their agent
strongly recommends that this be done, saying that there is
not " in the whole Indian country a more favorable location
for a farm for grazing stock and game than the South Platte*
In a very short period of time the Arapahoes and Cheyennes
would become fixed and settled, and a part of each tribe — the
old women and men — wou/d become agriculturists ; rude, it is
true, yet sufficiently skilful to raise corn, potatoes, and beans,
and dwell in cabins or fixed habitations."

In the summer of 1856 the Cheyennes were, by a disastrous
accident, forced into the position of hostiles. A small war*
band went out to attack the Pawnees ; they were in camp near
the North Platte road : as the mail-wagon was passing, two of
the Cheyennes ran toward it to beg tobacco. The mail- car-
rier, terrified, fired on them, and the Indians fired back, wound-
ing him ; the chiefs rushed out, stopped the firing, explained
the matter, and then severely flogged the Indians who had re-
turned the mail-carrier's fire. But the mischief had been done*

80 A CEOTUBY OP DISHONOE.

The mail-carrier reported his having been fired at by a Chey-
enne Indian, and the next day troops from Fort Keamy at-
tacked the Indians and killed six of the war-party. The rest
refused to fight, and ran away, leaving their camp and all it
contained. The war-party, thoroughly exasperated, attacked
an emigrant train, killed two men and a child, and took one
woman captive. The next day they killed her, because she
could not ride on horseback and keep up with them. Within
a short time two more small war-parties had left the band, at-
tacked trains, and killed two men, two women, and a child.
The chiefs at first could not restrain them, but in September
they sent a delegation to the agency to ask their agent's assist-
ance and advice. They said that the war-party was now com-
pletely under their control, and they wished to know what
they could do. They implored the Great Father not to be an-
gry with them, " for they could not control the war-party when
they saw their friends killed by soldiers after they had thrown
down their bows and arrows and begged for life."

In October the agent reported that the Cheyennes were
"perfectly quiet and peaceable, and entirely within control,
and obedient to authority." The chiefs had organized a
sort of police, whose duty was to kill any war - parties that
might attempt to leave the camp.

Through the winter the Cheyennes remained in the south
and south-eastern parts of the agency, and strictly observed the
conditions which their agent had imposed upon them. In the
following August, however, a military force under General
Sumner was sent out "to demand from the tribe the perpetra-
tors of their late outrages on the whites, and ample security for
their good conduct." The Cheyennes were reported by Gen-
eral Sumner as showing no disposition to yield to these de-
mands ; he therefore attacked them, burnt their village to tho
ground, and destroyed their winter supplies — some fifteen or
twenty thousand pounds of buffalo meat.

THE CHEYEKNES. 81

Of how they lived, and where, during the winter following this
fight, there is little record. In the next year's reports the Chey«
ennes are said to be very anxious for a new treaty, which will as-
sign to them a country in which they can dwell safely. "They
said they had learned a lesson last summer in their fight with
General Sumner — that it was useless to contend with the white
man, who would soon with his villages occupy the whole prai-
rie. They wanted peace ; and as the buffalo — their principal
dependence for food and clothing (which even now they were
compelled to seek many miles from home, where their natural
enemies, the Pawnee and Osage, roamed), would soon disappeai
entirely, they hoped their Great Father, the white chief at
Washington, would listen to them, and give them a home
where they might be provided for and protected against the
encroachments of their white brothers, until at least they had
been taught to cultivate the soil and other arts of civilized life.
They have often desired ploughs and hoes, and to be taught
their use."

The next year's records show the Government itself aware
that some measures must be taken to provide for these trouble-
some wild tribes of the prairie: almost more perplexing in
time of peace than in time of war is the problem of the dis-
position to be made of them. Agents and superintendents
alike are pressing on the Government's attention the facts and
the bearing of the rapid settling of the Indian lands by the
whites; the precariousness of peaceful relations; the dangers
of Indian wars. The Indians themselves are deeply anxious
and disturbed.

" They have heard that all of the Indian tribes to the east
ward of them have ceded their lands to the United States, ex<
cept small reservations ; and hence, by an Indian's reasoning,
in a few years these tribes will emigrate farther west, and, as
a matter of necessity, occupy the hunting-grounds of the wild
tribes."

4

82 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

When the agent of the Tipper Platte Agency tried to reason
on this subject with one of the Sioux chiefs, the chief said:
" When I was a young man, and I am not yet fifty, I travelled
with my people through the country of the Sac and Fox tribe,
to the great water Minne Toukah (Mississippi), where I saw
corn growing, but no white people; continuing eastward, we
came to the Rock River valley, and saw the Winnebagoes, but
no white people. We then came to the Fox River valley, and
thence to the Great Lake (Lake Michigan), where we found a
few white people in the Pottawattomie country. Thence we
returned to the Sioux country at the Great Falls of Irara (St
Anthony), and had a feast of green corn with our relations, who
resided there. Afterward we visited the pipe -clay quarry in
the country of the Yankton Sioux, and made a feast to the
* Great Medicine,' and danced the ' sun dance,' and then return-
ed to our hunting-grounds on the prairie. And now our Father
tells us the white man will never settle on our lands, and kill
our game; but see! the whites cover all of those lands I have
just described, and also the lands of the Poncas, Omahas, and
Pawnees. On the South Platte the white people are finding
gold, and the Cheyennes and Arapahoes have no longer any
hunting-grounds. Our country has become very small, and be-
fore our children are grown up we shall have no game."

In the autumn of this year (1859) an agent was sent to hold
a council with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and tell them of
the wish of the Government that they should " assume a fixed
residence, and occupy themselves in agriculture. This they at
once received with favor, and declared with great unanimity to
be acceptable to them. They expected and asked that the De-
partment shall supply them with what is necessary to establish
themselves permanently. * * * Both those tribes had scrupu-
lously maintained peaceful relations with the whites, and with
other Indian tribes, notwithstanding the many causes of irrita-
tion growing out of the occupation of the gold region, and the

THE CHEYENNES. 83

emigration to it through their hunting -grounds, which are no
longer reliable as a certain source of food to them."

It was estimated that during the summer of 1859 over sixty
thousand emigrants crossed these plains in their central belt.
The trains of vehicles and cattle were frequent and valuable in
proportion ; and post lines and private expresses were in con-
stant motion.

In 1860 a commissioner was sent out to hold a council with
the Cheyennes and Arapahoes at Bent's Fort, on the Upper
Arkansas, and mate a treaty with them. The Arapahoes were
fully represented ; but there were present only two prominent
chiefs of the Cheyennes — Black Kettle and White 'Antelope.
(White Antelope was one of the chiefs brutally murdered five
years later in the Chivington massacre in Colorado.) As it
was impossible for the rest of the Cheyennes to reach the Fort
in less than twenty days, and the commissioner could not wait
so long, Black Kettle and White Antelope wished it to be dis-
tinctly understood that they pledged only themselves and their
own bands.

The commissioner says : " I informed them as to the object
of my visit, and gave them to understand that their Great
Father had heard with delight of their peaceful disposition,
although they were almost in the midst of the hostile tribes.
They expressed great pleasure on learning that their Great Fa-
ther had heard of their good conduct, and requested ine to say,
in return, that they intended in every respect to conform to the
wishes of the Government. I then presented to them a dia-
gram of the country assigned them, by their treaty of 1851, as
their hunting-grounds, which they seemed to understand per-
fectly, and were enabled without difficulty to give each initial
point. In fact, they exhibited a degree of intelligence seldom
to bo found among tribes where no effort has been made to
civilize them. I stated to them that it was the intention of
their Great Father to reduce the area of their present reserve

84 A CENTURY or DISHONOE.

tion, and that they should settle down and betake themselves
to agriculture, and eventually abandon the chase as a means of
support. They informed me that such was their wish; and
that they had been aware for some time that they would be
compelled to do so : that game was growing more scarce every
year, and that they had also noticed the approach of whites,
and felt that they must soon, in a great measure, conform to
their habits. * * * It has not fallen to my lot to visit any
Indians who seem more disposed to yield to the wishes of the
Government than the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Notwith-
standing they are fully aware of the rich mines discovered in
their country, they are disposed to yield up their claims with-
out any reluctance. They certainly deserve the fostering hand
of the Government, and should be liberally encouraged in their
new sphere of life."

This treaty was concluded in February of the next year, at
Fort Wise. The chiefs of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes there
" ceded and relinquished " all the lands to which they had any
claim, " wherever situated," except a certain tract whose boun-
daries were defined. The land relinquished included lands in
Kansas and Nebraska, and all of that part of Colorado which is
north of the Arkansas, and east of the Rocky Mountains.

The Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in " consideration of their
kind treatment by the citizens of Denver and the adjoining
towns," "respectfully requested," in the eleventh Article of
this treaty, that the United States would permit the proprietors
of these towns to enter their lands at the minimum price of
one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. This Article was
struck out by the Senate, and the Indians consented to the
amendment; but the proof of their good -will and gratitude
remained on record, nevertheless.

The desire of the Government to make farmers of these In-
dians was reiterated in this treaty, and evidenced by pledges
of purchase of stock, agricultural implements, etc. ; mills, also,

THE CHEYENNES. 85

and mechanic shops they were to have, and an annuity of
$30,000 a year for fifteen years. There was this clause, how-
ever, in an article of the treaty, " Their annuities may, at the
discretion of the President of the United States, be discon-
tinued entirely should said Indians fail to make reasonable
and satisfactory efforts to improve and advance their condi-
tion ; in which case such other provision shall be made for
them as the President and Congress may judge to be suitable
or proper." Could there be a more complete signing away
than this of all benefits provided for by the treaty ?

Lands were to be assigned to them "in severalty," and cer-
tificates were to be issued by the Commissioner of Indian Af-
fairs, specifying the names of individuals ; and that the " said
tracts were set apart for the exclusive use and benefit of the
assignees and their heirs." Each Indian was to have forty
acres of land, " to include in every case, as far as practicable,
a reasonable portion of timber and water."

The tenth Article of the treaty provided that the annuities
now paid to the Arapahoes and Cheyennes should be continued
to them until the stipulations of such treaties or articles of
agreement should be fulfilled; and the seventh Article pro-
vided that the President, with the assent of Congress, should
have power to modify or -change any " of the provisions of for-
mer treaties " " in such manner and to whatever extent " he
might judge it to be necessary and expedient for their best
interests.

Could a community of people be delivered up more com-
pletely bound and at the mercy of a government ? Some of
the bands of the Cheyennes who were not represented at this
council were much dissatisfied with the treaty, as evidently
they had great reason to be. And as time went on, all the
bands became dissatisfied. Two years later we find that, in-
stead of their being settled on those farms " in severalty," the
survey of their lands has been just completed, and that "a

86 A CEOTURY OF DISHONOR.

contract will soon be made for the construction of a ditch for
the purpose of irrigating their arable land." "It is to be
hoped," the Superintendent of the Colorado Agency writes,
that " when suitable preparations for their subsistence by agri-
culture and grazing are made, these tribes will gradually cease
their roaming, and become permanently settled." It would
seem highly probable that under those conditions the half-
starved creatures would be only too glad to cease to roam. It
is now ten years since they were reported to be in a condition
of miserable starvation every winter, trying to raise a little
corn here and there, and begging to have a farmer and a black-
smith sent out to them. They are now divided and subdivided
into small bands, hunting the buffalo wherever they can find
him, and going in small parties because there are no longer
large herds of buffaloes to be found anywhere. The Governor
of Colorado says, in his report for 1863, that "these extensive
subdivisions of the tribes caused great difficulty in ascertain-
ing the really guilty parties in the commission of offences."
Depredations and hostilities are being frequently committed,
but it is manifestly unjust to hold the whole tribe responsible
for the acts of a few.

Things grew rapidly worse in Colorado. Those "prepara-
tions for their subsistence by agriculture and grazing" — which
it took so much room to tell in the treaty — not having been
made ; the farmer, and the blacksmith, and the grist-mill not
having arrived ; the contract not having been even let for the
irrigating-ditch, without, which no man can raise any crops in
Colorado, not even on arable lands — many of the Cheyenncs
and Arapahoes took to a system of pilfering reprisals from
emigrant trains, and in the fights resulting from this effort to
steal they committed many terrible murders. All the tribes on
the plains were more or less engaged in these outrages ; and it
was evident, before midsummer of 1864, that the Government
must interfere with a strong hand to protect the emigrants and

THE CHEYENNES. 87

Western settlers — to protect them from the consequences of its
own bad faith with the Indians. The Governor of Colorado
called for military aid, and for authority to make a campaign
against the Indians, which was given lum. But as there was no
doubt that many of the Indians were still peaceable and loyal,
and he desired to avoid every possibility of their sharing in
the punishment of the guilty, he issued a proclamation in
June, requesting all who were friendly to come to places which
he designated, where they were to be assured of safety and pro-
tection. This proclamation was sent to all the Indians of the
plains. In consequence of it, several bands of friendly Arapa-
hoes and Cheyennes came to Fort Lyon, and were there re-
ceived by the officer in charge, rationed, and assured of safety.
Here there occurred, on the 29th of November, one of the foul-
est massacres which the world has seen. This camp of friend-
ly Indians was surprised at daybreak, and men, women, and
children were butchered in cold blood. Most of those who
escaped fled to the north, and, joining other bands of the
tribe, proceeded at once to take most fearful, and, it must be
said, natural revenge. A terrible war followed. Some 'of them
confederated with the Sioux, and waged relentless war on all
the emigrant routes across the plains. These hostilities were
bitter in proportion to the bitterness of resentment felt by the
refugees from this massacre. " It will be long before faith in
the honor and humanity of the whites can be re-established in
the minds of these barbarians," says an official report, "and
the last Indian who escaped from the brutal scene at Sand
Creek will probably have died before its effects will have dis-
appeared."*

In October of the next year some of the bands, having first
had their safety assured by an old and tried friend, L H. Leav-
enworth, Indian Agent for the Upper Arkansas, gathered to*

* See Appendix, Arts; L and XL

88 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

gether to hold a council with United States Commissioners on
the Little Arkansas. The commissioners were empowered by
the President to restore to the survivors of the Sand Creek mas-
sacre full value for all the property then destroyed ; " to make
reparation," so far as possible. To each woman who had lost a
husband there they gave one hundred and sixty acres of land ;
to each child who had lost a parent, the same. Probably even
an Indian woman would consider one hundred and sixty acres
of land a poor equivalent for a murdered husband ; but the
offers were accepted in good part by the tribe, and there is
nothing in all the history of this patient race more pathetic
than the calm and reasonable language employed by some of
these Cheyenne and Arapahoe chiefs at this council. Said
Black Kettle, the chief over whose lodge the American flag,
with a white flag tied below, was floating at the time of the
massacre, " I once thought that I was the only man that perse-
vered to be the friend of the white man ; but since they have
come and cleaned out our lodges, horses, and everything else,
it is hard for me to believe white men any more. * * * All my
friends, the Indians that are holding back, they are afraid to
come in ; are afraid that they will be betrayed as I have been.
I am not afraid of white men, but come and take you by the
hand." Elsewhere, Black Kettle spoke of Colonel Chivington's
troops as "that fool -band of soldiers that cleared out our
lodges, and killed our women and children. This is hard on
us." With a magnanimity and common -sense which white
men would have done well to imitate in their judgments of the
Indians, he recognized that it would be absurd, as well as un-
just, to hold all white men in distrust on account of the acts
of that "fool-band of soldiers."*

* Gen. Harney, on being asked by Bishop W hippie if Black Kettle were
a hostile Indian, replied, laying his hand on his heart, " I have worn this
uniform fifty-five years. He was as true a friend of the white man as I am."

THE CHEYENNES. 89

By the terms of this treaty, a new reservation was to be set
apart for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes ; hostile acts on either
side were to be settled by arbitration; no whites were to be
allowed on the reservation ; a large tract of country was to be
"relinquished" by the Indians, but they were "expressly per-
mitted to reside upon and range at pleasure throughout the un-
settled portions of that part of the country they claim as origi-
nally theirs." The United States reserved the right to build
roads and establish forts in the reservation, and pledged itself to
pay " annually, for the period of forty years," certain sums of
money to each person in the tribe : twenty dollars a head till
they were settled on their reservation ; after that, forty dollars
a head. To this end an accurate annual census of the Indians
was promised at the time of the annuity payment in the spring.

The Indians went away from this council full of hope and
satisfaction. Their oldest friends, Colonel Bent and Kit Carson,
were among the commissioners, and they felt that at last they
had a treaty they could trust Their old reservation in Colora-
do (to which they probably could never have been induced to
return) was restored to the public domain of that territory, and
they hoped in their new home for greater safety and peace.
The Apaches, who had heretofore been allied with the Kiowas
and Comanches, were now allied with them, and to have the
benefits of the new treaty. A small portion of the tribe —
chiefly young men of a turbulent nature — still held aloof, and
refused to come under the treaty provisions. One riotous band,
called the Dog Soldiers, were especially refractory ; but, before
the end of the next year, they also decided to go southward
and join the rest of the tribe on the new reservation. Occa-
sional hostilities took place in the course of the winter, one of
which it is worth while to relate, the incident is so typical a one.

On the 21st of February a son of one Mr. Boggs was killed
and scalped by a party of four Cheyenne Indians about six
miles east of Fort Dodge, on the Arkansas River. On invesr

4*

90 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

tigation, it appeared that Mr. Boggs bad gone to the Indian
camp without any authority, and had there traded ofE eleven
one-dollar bills for ten-dollar bills. The Indian on whom this
trick had been played found Mr. Boggs out, went to him, and
demanded reparation ; and, in the altercation and fight which
ensued, Mr. Boggs's son was killed. This story is given in the
official report of Lieutenant-colonel Gordon, U.S. A., and Colonel
Gordon adds, "I think this case needs no further comment."

The Cheyennes did not long remain at peace ; in the sum-
mer the Senate had added to this last treaty an amendment
requiring their new reservation to be entirely "outside the
State of Kansas, and not within any Indian territory, except
on consent of the tribes interested." As the reservation had
been partly in Kansas, and partly on the lands of the Cherokces,
this amendment left them literally without any home what-
ever. Tinder these circumstances, the young men of the tribe
soon began to join again with other hostile Indians in commit-
ting depredations and hostilities along the great mail-routes on
the plains. Again they were visited with summary and appar-
ently deserved vengeance by the United States troops, and in
the summer of 1867 a Cheyenne village numbering three hun-
dred lodges was burnt by United States soldiers under Gen-
eral Hancock. Fortunately the women and children had all
fled on the first news of the approach of the army. Soon after
this another council was held with them, and once more the
precarious peace was confirmed by treaty ; but was almost im-
mediately broken again in consequence of the failure of the
Government to comply with the treaty provisions. That some
members of these tribes had also failed to keep to the treaty
provisions is undoubtedly true, but by far the greater part of
them were loyal and peaceable. " The substantial cause of this
war," however, was acknowledged by the Indian Bureau itself
to be " the fact that the Department, for want of appropriations,
was compelled to stop their supplies, and to permit them to
recur to the chase for subsistence."

THE CUEYENNES. 91

In 1868 "the country bounded east by the State of Arkan-
sas, south by Texas, north by Kansas, and west by the hun-
dredth meridian of longitude, was set apart for the exclusive
use of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Comanches, and
such other bands as might be located there by proper author-
ity;" and the whole was declared to constitute "a military dis-
trict," under command of Major-general Hazen, U.S.A. In Oc-
tober of the same year Major Wynkoop, who had been the faith-
ful friend of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes ever since the days
of Sand Creek, published his last protest in their behalf, in a
letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He says that the
failure of the Government to fulfil treaty provisions in the mat-
ter of supplies forced them to resort to hunting again; and
then the refusal of the Government to give them the arms and
ammunition promised in the treaty, left them without any
means of seeming the game; hence the depredations. The
chiefs had promised to deliver up the guilty ones to Major
Wynkoop, " but before sufficient time had elapsed for them to
fulfil their promises the troops were in the field, and the Indians
in flight. * * * Even after the majority of the Cheyennes had
been forced to take the war-path, in consequence of the bad
acts of some of their nation, several bands of the Cheyennes,
and the whole Arapahoe tribe, could have been kept at peace
had proper action been taken at the time ; but now all the In-
dians of the Upper Arkansas are engaged in the struggle."*

In 1869 many Arapahoes and Cheyennes had made their
way to Montana, and were living with the Gros Ventres ; most
of those who remained at the south were quiet, and seemed to
be disposed to observe the provisions of the treaty, but were
earnestly imploring to be moved farther to the north, where
they might hunt buffalo.

* On October 27th of this year Black Kettle and his entire band were
killed by Gen, Ouster's command at Antelope Hills, on the Wichita River.

92 A CEOTUET OF DISHONOR.

In 1870, under the care of an agent of the Society of
Friends, the improvement of the Southern Cheyennes was re-
markable. Buildings were put up, land was broken and plant-
ed, and the agent reports that, "with proper care on the part of
the Government," there will not be any " serious trouble " with
the tribe, although there are still some "restless spirits" among
them.

In 1872 the Cheyennes and Arapahoes are reported as "al-
lied to the Government in the maintenance of peace on the
border. Very strong inducements have been made by the raid-
ing bands of Kiowas, at critical times in the past two years, to
join them in hostile alliance in raids against the whites ; but
all such appeals have been rejected, and, as a tribe, they have
remained loyal and peaceful."

Thirty lodges of the Northern Cheyennes returned this year
and joined their tribe, but many of them were still roaming
among the Northern Sioux. In 1874 there were said to be
over three thousand of these Northern Cheyennes and Arapa-
hoes at the Red Cloud Agency. The Government refused any
longer to permit them to stay there ; and, after repeated pro-
tests, and expressions of unwillingness to move, they at last
consented to go to the Indian Territory. But their removal
was deferred, on account of the unsettled state of the South-
ern Cheyennes. Early in the spring troubles had broken out
among them, in consequence of a raid of horse -.thieves on
their reservation. The chief, Little Robe, lost forty-three head
of valuable ponies. These ponies were offered for sale in
Dodge City, Kansas, where Little Robe's son, with a small
band of young men, made an unsuccessful effort to reclaim
them. Failing in this, the band, on their way back, stole the
first stock they came to ; were pursued by the Kansas farmers,
the stock recaptured, and Little Robe's son badly wounded.
This was sufficient to bring on a general war against white
men in the whole region; and the history of the next few

THE CHEYENNES. 93

months was a history of murders and outrages by Cheyennes,
Kiowas, Osages, and Comanches. Sixty lodges of the Chey-
ennes took refuge under the protection of the United States
troops at the agency, and the old problem returned again, how
to punish the guilty without harming the innocent. A vigor-
ous military campaign was carried on under General Miles
against the hostiles until, in the spring of 1875, the main body
surrendered. Wretched, half starved, more than half naked,
without lodges, ponies — a more pitiable sight was never seen
than this band of Indians. It was inconceivable how they had
so long held out ; nothing but a well-nigh indomitable pride
and inextinguishable hatred of the whites and sense of wrongs
could have supported them. It was decided that thirty-three
of the most desperate ones should be sent as prisoners to St.
Augustine, Florida ; but before the selection was completed a
general stampede among the surrendered braves took place, re-
sulting in the final escape of some four hundred. They held
their ground from two P. M. until dark against three companies
of cavalry and two Gatlin guns, and, " under cover of an ex-
tremely dark and stormy night, escaped, leaving only three
dead on the field." It is impossible not to admire such bravery
as this. The Report of the Indian Bureau for 1875 says of
the condition of affairs at this agency at this time: "The
friendly Cheyennes have had their loyalty put to the severest
test by comparing their own condition with that of the full-fed
and warmly-housed captives of the War Department. Notwith-
standing all privations, they have been unswerving in their
friendship, and ever ready to assist the agent in maintaining
order, and compelling the Northern Cheyennes who have vis-
ited the agency to submit to a count." In consequence of the
hostilities, they were obliged to remain close to the agency in
camp — a hardship that could hardly be endured, and resulted
in serious suffering. Their rations were not enough to subsist
them, and yet, being cut off from hunting, they were entirely

94 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

dependent on them. And even these inadequate rations did
not arrive when they were due. Their agent writes, in 1875 :
"On last year's flour contract not a single pound was received
until the fourteenth day of First Month, 1875, when six months
of cold weather and many privations had passed, notwithstand-
ing the many protestations and urgent appeals from the agent."

The now thoroughly subjugated Cheyennes went to work
with a will. In one short year they are reported as so anxious
to cultivate the ground that, when they could not secure the
use of a plough or hoe, they used " axes, sticks of wood, and
their hands, in preparing the ground, planting and cultivating
their garden spots."

The Northern Cheyennes are still on the Ked Cloud Agency,
and are reported as restless and troublesome.

In 1877 they were all removed to the Cheyenne and Arapa-
hoe Agency, in Indian Territory. The Reports of the Depart-
ment say that they asked to be taken there. The winter of
1866 and the summer of 1867 were seasons of great activity
and interest at this agency. In the autumn they went off on a
grand buffalo hunt, accompanied by a small detail of troops
from Fort Reno. Early in the winter white horse - thieves
began to make raids on their ponies, and stole so many that
many of the Indians were obliged to depend on their friends'
ponies to help them return home. Two hundred and sixty in
all were stolen — carried, as usual, to Dodge City and sold. A
few were recovered ; but the loss to the Indians was estimated
at two thousand nine hundred dollars. "Such losses are
very discouraging to the Indians," writes their agent, and
are " but a repetition of the old story that brought on the war
of 1874."

In midsummer of this year the " Cheyenne and Arapahoe
Transportation Company" was formed: forty wagons were
sent out, with harness, by the Government; the Indians fur-
nished the horses ; and on the 19th of July the Indians set out

THE CHEYENNES. 95

in their new r6le of " freighters " of their own supplies. They
went to Wichita, Kansas — one hundred and sixty-five miles — in
six days, with their ponies ; loaded sixty-five thousand pounds
of supplies into the wagons, and made the return trip in two
weeks, all things being delivered in good condition.

This experiment was thoroughly tested ; and its results are
notable among the many unheeded refutations of the constant-
ly repeated assertion that Indians will not work. The agent
of the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, testifying before a Sen-
ate Committee in 1879, says: "We have run a wagon train,
driven by Indians, to Wichita, for three years and over, and
have never had a drunken Indian yet."

" Do they waste their money, or bring it home ?"

"They almost invariably spend it for saddles or clothing,
or something of use to them that is not furnished by the Gov-
ernment. * * * They have never stolen an ounce of sugar,
coffee, or anything else : they have been careful not to injure
or waste anything, and have delivered everything in good
faith."

The agent reports not a single case of drunkenness during
the year. The manual labor and boarding-school has one hun-
dred and thirteen scholars in it, "all it can accommodate."
The children earned four hundred dollars in the year by work
of one sort and another, and have " expended the money as
judiciously as would white children of their ages." They
bought calico, cotton cloth, shoes, hats, several head of cattle,
and one horse. They also "bought many delicacies for their
friends in camp who were sick and in need."

" One Cheyenne woman tanned robes, traded them for twen-
ty-five two-year-old heifers, and gave them to her daughter in
the school. * * * The boys have one hundred and twenty acres
of corn under cultivation, ten acres of potatoes, broom-corn,
sugar-cane, peanuts, melons, and a good variety of vegetables.
They are entitled to one-half the crop for cultivating ft."

96 A CBNTUET OF DISHONOR

This is a marvellous report of the change wrought in a peo-
ple in only two years' time. It proves that the misdemeanors,
the hostilities of 1874 and 1875, had been largely forced on
them by circumstances.

The winter of 1877 and summer of 1878 were terrible
seasons for the Cheyennes. Their fall hunt had proved un-
successful. Indians from other reservations had hunted the
ground over before them, and driven the buffalo off ; and the
Cheyennes made their way home again in straggling parties,
destitute and hungry. Their agent reports that the result of
this hunt has clearly proved that "in the future the Indian
must rely on tilling the ground as the principal means of sup-
port ; and if this conviction can be firmly established, the great-
est obstacle to advancement in agriculture will be overcome.
With the buffalo gone, and their pony herds being constantly
decimated by the inroads of horse -thieves, they must soon
adopt, in all its varieties, the way of the white man. * * * Tho
usual amount of horse-stealing has prevailed, and the few cases
of successful pursuit have only increased the boldness of the
thieves and the number of the thefts. Until some other sys-
tem of law is introduced we cannot hope for a cessation of this
grievance."

The ration allowed to these Indians is reported as being " re-
duced and insufficient," and the small sums they have been
able to earn by selling buffalo-hides are said to have been " of
material assistance" to them in " supplementing" this ration.
But in this year there have been sold only $657 worth of
skins by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes together. In 1876
they sold $17,600 worth. Here is a falling off enough to
cause very great suffering in a little community of five thou-
sand people. But this was only the beginning of their troubles.
The summer proved one of unusual heat. . Extreme heat, chills
and fever, and " a reduced and insufficient ration," all com-
bined, resulted in an amount of sickness heart-rending to read

THE CHEYENNES. 97

of. " It is no exaggerated estimate," says the agent, " to place
the number of sick people on the reservation at two thousand.
Many deaths occurred which might have been obviated had
there been a proper supply of anti-malarial remedies at hand.
* * * Hundreds applying for treatment have been refused med-
icine."

The Northern Cheyennes grew more and more restless and
unhappy. " In council and elsewhere they profess an intense
desire to be sent North, where they say they will settle down
as the others have done," says the report ; adding, with an ob-
tuseness which is inexplicable, that "no difference has been
made in the treatment of the Indians," but that the "com-
pliance" of these Northern Cheyennes has been " of an entirely
different nature from that of the other Indians," and that it may
be " necessary in the future to compel what so far we have been
unable to effect by kindness and appeal to their better natures."

If it is " an appeal to men's better natures " to remove them
by force from a healthful Northern climate, which they love
and thrive in, to a malarial Southern one, where they are struck
down by chills and fever — refuse them medicine which can
combat chills and fever, and finally starve them — then, indeed,
might be said to have been most forcible appeals made to the
" better natures " of these Northern Cheyennes. What might
have been predicted followed.

Early in the autumn, after this terrible summer, a band of
some three hundred of these Northern Cheyennes took the
desperate step of running off and attempting to make their
way back to Dakota. They were pursued, f ought desperately,
but were finally overpowered, and surrendered. They surren-
dered, however, only on the condition that they should be
taken to Dakota. They were unanimous in declaring that
they would rather die than go back to the Indian Territory.
This was nothing more, in fact, than saying that they would
rather die by bullets than of chills and fever and starvation.

98 A CBNTUEY Otf DISHONOR.

These Indians were taken to Fort Eobinson, Nebraska. Here
they were confined as prisoners of war, and held subject to the
orders of the Department of the Interior. The department
was informed of the Indians' determination never to be taken
back alive to Indian Territory. The army officers in charge
reiterated these statements, and implored the department to
permit them to remain at the North ; but it was of no avail.
Orders came — explicit, repeated, finally stern — insisting on the
return of these Indians to their agency. The commanding
officer at Fort Robinson has been censured severely for the
course he pursued in his effort to carry out those orders. It
is difficult to see what else he could have done, except to have
resigned his post. He could not take three hundred Indians
by sheer brute force and carry them hundreds of miles, espe-
cially when they were so desperate that they had broken up
the iron stoves in their quarters, and wrought and twisted
them into weapons with which to resist. He thought perhaps
he could starve them into submission. He stopped the issue
of food; he also stopped the issue of fuel to them. It was
midwinter; the mercury froze in that month at Fort Eobin-
son. At the end of two days he asked the Indians to let their
women and children come out that he might feed them. Not
a woman would come out. On the night of the fourth day —
or, according to some accounts, the sixth — these starving, freez-
ing Indians broke prison, overpowered the guards, and fled,
carrying their women and children with them. They held the
pursuing troops at bay for several days; finally made a last
stand in a deep ravine, and were shot down — men, women, and
children together. Out of the whole band there were left alive
some fifty women and children and seven men, who, having
been confined in another part of the fort, had not had the good
fortune to share in this outbreak and meet their death in the
ravine. These, with their wives and children, were sent to Fort
Leavenworth, to be put in prison ; the men to be tried for mur-

THE CIIEYENNES. 99

clcrs committed in their skirmishes in Kansas on their way to
the north. Bed Cloud, a Sioux chief, came to Fort Robinson
immediately after this massacre, and entreated to be allowed
to take the Cheyenne widows and orphans into his tribe to be
cared for. The Government, therefore, kindly permitted twen-
ty-two Cheyenne widows and thirty-two Cheyenne children —
many of them orphans — to be received into the band of the
Ogallalla Sioux.

An attempt was made by the Commissioner of Indian Af-
fairs, in his Report for 1879, to show by tables and figures that
these Indians were not starving at the time of their flight from
Indian Territory. The attempt only redounded to his own dis-
grace ; it being proved, by the testimony given by a former
clerk of the Indian Bureau before the Senate committee ap-
pointed to investigate the case of the Northern Cheyennes, that
the commissioner had been guilty of absolute dishonesty in his
estimates, and that the quantity of beef actually issued to the
Cheyenne Agency was hundreds of pounds less than he had
reported it, and that the Indians were actually, as they had
claimed, " starving."

The testimony given before this committee by some of the
Cheyenne prisoners themselves is heart-rending. One must
have a callous heart who can read it unmoved.

When asked by Senator Morgan, " Did you ever really suffer
from hunger?" one of the chiefs replied, "We were always
hungry; we never had enough. When they that were sick
once in awhile felt as though they could eat sometliing, we
had nothing to give them."

" Did you not go out on the plains sometimes and hunt buf-
falo, with the consent of the agent t"

" We went out on a buffalo-hunt, and nearly starved while
out ; we could not find any buffalo hardly ; we could hardly
get back with our ponies; we had to kill a good many of our
ponies to eat, to save ourselves from starving."

100 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

"How many children got sick and died?"

"Between the fall of 1877 and 1878 we lost fifty children,
A great many of our finest young men died, as well as many
women."

" Old Crow," a chief who served faithfully as Indian scout
and ally under General Crook for years, said : " I did not feel
like doing anything for awhile, because I had no heart. I did
not want to be in this country. I was all the time wanting to
get back to the better country where I was born, and where
my children are buried, and where my mother and sister yet
live. So I have laid in my lodge most of the time with noth-
ing to think about but that, and the affair up north at Fort
Robinson, and my relatives and friends who were killed there.
But now I feel as though, if I had a wagon and a horse or
two, and some land, I would try to work. If I had something,
so that I could do something, I might not think so much about
these other things. As it is now, I feel as though I would just
as soon be asleep with the rest."

The wife of one of the chiefs confined at Fort Leavenworth
testified before the committee as follows : " The main thing I
complained of was that we didn't get enough to eat ; my chil-
dren nearly starved to death; then sickness came, and there
was nothing good for them to eat ; for a long time the most
they had to eat was corn-meal and salt. Three or four chil-
dren dfed every day for awhile, and that frightened us."

(This testimony was taken at Fort Reno, in Indian Terri-
tory.)

"When asked if there were anything she would like to say to
the committee, the poor woman replied: "I wish you would
do what you can to get my husband released. I am very poor
here, and do not know what is to become of me. If he were
released he would come down here, and we would live together
quietly, and do no harm to anybody, and make no trouble.
But I should never get over my desire to get back north ; I

THE CHBYENNBS. 101

should always want to get 'back where my children were born,
and died, and were buried. That country is better than this
in every respect. * * * There is plenty of good, cool water
there — pure water — while here the water is not good. It is
not hot there, nor so sickly. Are you going where my hus-
band is ! Can you tell when he is likely to be released ?"

The Senators were obliged to reply to her that they were not
going where her husband was, and they could not tell when he
would be released.

In view of the accounts of the sickness and suffering of these
Indians in 1877 and 1878, the reports made in 1879 of the
industry and progress at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe* Agency
are almost incredible. The school children have, by their earn-
ings, bought one hundred head of cattle; 451,000 pounds of
freight have been transported by the Indians during the year ;
they have also worked at making brick, chopping wood, mak-
ing hay, hauling wood, and splitting and hauling rails; and
have earned thereby $7121 25. Two of the girls of the school
have been promoted to the position of assistant teachers ; and
the United States mail contractor between this agency and
Fort Elliott, in Texas — a distance of one hundred and sixty-five
'miles — has operated almost exclusively with full-blooded In-
dians : "there has been no report of breach of trust on the part
of any Indians connected with this trust, and the contractor
expresses his entire approval of their conduct."

It is stated also that there was not sufficient clothing to fur-
nish each Indian with a warm suit of clothing, " as promised
by the treaty," and that, " by reference to official correspond-
ence, the fact is established that the Cheyennes and Arapahoes
are judged as having no legal rights to any lands, having for-
feited their treaty reservation by a failure to settle thereon,"
and their " present reservation not having been, as yet, confirm-
ed by Congress. Inasmuch as the Indians fully understood,
and were assured that this reservation was given to them in

102 A CENTTLRY OF DISHONOR.

lieu of their treaty reservation, and have commenced farming
in the belief that there was no uncertainty about the matter, it
is but common justice that definite action be had at an early
day, securing to them what is their right."

It would seem that there could be found nowhere in the
melancholy record of the experiences of our Indians a more
glaring instance of confused multiplication of injustices than
this. The Cheyennes were pursued and slain for venturing to
leave this very reservation, which, it appears, is not their reser-
vation at all, and they have no legal right to it. Are there any
words to fitly characterize such treatment as this from a great,
powerful, rich nation, to a handful of helpless people ?

THE NEZ PERCYS. 103

CHAPTER IV.

THE NEZ PERCYS.

BOUNDED on the north, south, and east by snow -topped
mountains, and on the -west by shining -waters ; holding in its
rocky passes the sources of six great rivers; bearing on its
slopes and plains measureless forests of pine and cedar and
spruce ; its meadows gardens of summer bloom and fruit, and
treasure-houses of fertility, — lies Oregon : wide, healthful, beau-
tiful, abundant, and inviting, no wonder it was coveted and
fought for.

When Lewis and Clarke visited it, eighty years ago, they
found living there many tribes of Indians, numbering in all, at
the lowest estimates, between twenty and thirty thousand ; of
all these tribes the Nez Percys were the richest, noblest, and
most gentle.

To the Cayuses, one of the most warlike of these tribes,
Messrs. Lewis and Clarke presented an American flag, telling
them it was an emblem of peace. The gay coloring and beauty
of the flag, allied to this significance, made a deep impression
on the poetic minds of these savages. They set the flag up in
a beautiful valley called the Grande Ronde — a fertile basin
some twenty-five miles in diameter, surrounded by high walls
of basaltic rock, and watered by a branch of the Snake River :
around this flag they met their old enemies the Shoshones, and
swore to keep perpetual peace with them ; and the spot became
consecrated to an annual meeting of the tribes — a sort of fair,
where the Cayuse, Nez Perc6, and Walla Walla Indians came
every summer and traded their roots, skins, elk and buffalo

104 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

meats, for salmon and horses, with the Shoshones. It was a
beautiful spot, nearly circular, luxuriantly covered with grass,
the hill wall around it thick grown with evergreen trees, chiefly
larch. The Indians called it Karpkarp, which being translated
is "Balm of Gilead."

The life of these Indians was a peculiar one. Most of them
had several homes, and as they lived only a part of the year in
each, were frequently spoken of by travellers as nomadic tribes,
while in fact they were as wedded to their homes as any civil-
ized inhabitants of the world ; and their wanderings were as
systematic as the removals of wealthy city people from town
homes co country places. If a man were rich enough, and fond
enough of change, to have a winter house in New York, a house
for the summer in Newport, and one for autumn in the White
Mountains, nobody would think of calling him a nomad ; still
less if he made these successive changes annually, with perfect
regularity, owing to opportunities which were offered him at
regularly recuning intervals in these different places to earn
his living ; which was the case with the Oregon Indians.

As soon as the snow disappears in the spring there is in
.certain localities, ready for gathering, the "pohpoh" — a small
bulb, like an onion. This is succeeded by the " spatlam," and
the " spatlam " by the " cammass " or " ithwa," a root like a
parsnip, which they make into fine meal. In midsummer come
the salmon in countless shoals up the rivers. August is the
month for berries, of which they dry great quantities for win-
ter use. In September salmon again — coming down stream
now, exhausted and ready to die, but in sufficiently good con-
dition to be dried for the winter. In October comes the " me-
sani," another root of importance in the Indian larder. After
this they must depend on deer, bears, small game, and wild-
fowl. When all these resources fail, there is a kind of lichen
growing on the trees, of which they can eat enough to keep
themselves from starving, though its nutritive qualities are very

THE NEZ PERCYS. 105

small. Thus each season had its duty and its appointed place
of abode, and year after year the same month found them in
the same spot.

In 1833 a delegation from these Oregon Indians went to St,
Louis, and through Mr. Catlin, the artist, made known their ob-
ject, which was " to inquire for the truth of a representation
which they said some white men had made among them, that
our religion was better than theirs, and that they would all be
lost if they did not embrace it." Two members of this delega-
tion were Nez Perces — " Hee-oh'ks-te-kin " and " H'co-a-h'co-
a-h'cotes-min," or "Rabbit-skin Leggings," and "No Horns on
his Head." Their portraits are to be found in " Catlin's Amer-
ican Indians." One of these died on his way home ; but the
other journeyed his thousands of miles safely back, and bore
to his tribe the news " that the report which they had heard
was well founded, and that good and religious men would soon
come among them to teach this religion, so that they could all
understand and have the benefits of it."

Two years later the Methodist Episcopal Society and the
American Board both sent missionaries to Oregon. Before
this the religion of the fur-traders was the only white man's
religion that the Indians had had the opportunity of observing.
Eleven different companies and expeditions, besides the Hud-
son's JBay and the North-west Companies, had been established
in their country, and the Indians had become only too familiar
with their standards and methods. It was not many years af-
ter the arrival of the missionaries in Oregon that a traveller
there gave the following account of his experience with a Nez
Pcrc6 guide : -

" Creekie (so he was named) was a very kind man ; he turn-
ed my worn-out animals loose, and loaded my packs on his
own ; gave me a splendid horse to ride, and intimated by sig-
nificant gestures that we would go a short distance that after-
noon. I gave my assent, and we were soon on our way ; hav-

5

106 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

ing ridden about ten miles, we camped for the night. I no-
ticed, during the ride, a degree of forbearance toward each oth-
er which I had never before observed in that race. When we
halted for the night the two boys were behind ; they had been
frolicking with their horses, and, as the darkness came on, lost
the trail. It was a half -hour before they made their appear-
ance, and during this time the parents manifested the most
anxious solicitude for them. One of them was but three years
old, and was lashed to the horse he rode ; the other only seven
years of age — young pilots in the wilderness at night. But
the elder, true to the sagacity of his race, had taken his course,
and struck the brook on which we were encamped within three
hundred yards of us. The pride of the parents at this feat,
and their ardent attachment to the. children, were perceptible
in the pleasure with which they received them at their even-
ning fire, and heard the relation of their childish adventures.
The weather was so pleasant that no tent was spread. The
willows were bent, and the buffalo -robes spread over them.
Underneath were laid other robes, on which my Indian host
seated himself, with his wife and children on one side and
myself on the other. A fire burnt brightly in front. Water
was brought, and the evening ablutions having been performed,
the wife presented a dish of meat to her husband and one to
myself. There was a pause. The woman seated herself be-
tween her children. The Indian then bowed his head and
prayed to God. A wandering savage in Oregon, calling on
Jehovah in the name of Jesus Christ! After the prayer he
gave meat to his children and passed the dish to his wife.
While eating, the frequent repetition of the words Jehovah and
Jesus Christ, in the most reverential manner, led me to sup-
pose that they were conversing on religious topics, and thus
they passed an hour. Meanwhile the exceeding weariness of a
long day's travel admonished me to seek rest. I had slumber-
ed I know not how long, when a strain of music awoke me.

THE NEZ PERCYS. 10Y

The Indian family was engaged in its evening devotions. They
were singing a hymn in the Nez Percys language. Having
finished, they all knelt and bowed their faces on the buffalo-
robe, and Creekie prayed long and fervently. Afterward they
sung another hymn, and retired. To hospitality, family affec-
tion, and devotion, Creekie added honesty and cleanliness to a
great degree, manifesting by these fruits, so contrary to the
nature and habits of his race, the beautiful influence of the
work of grace on the heart."

The earliest mention of the Nez Perces in the official records
of the Indian Bureau is in the year 1843. In that year an
agent was sent out to investigate the condition of the Oregon
tribes, and he reports as follows : " The only tribes from which
much is to be hoped, or anything to be feared in this part of
Oregon, are the Walla Wallas, Cay uses, and Nez Percys, inhab-
iting a district on the Columbia and its tributaries, commenc-
ing two hundred and forty miles from its mouth, and stretch-
ing four hundred and eighty miles in the interior."

The Nez Percys, living farther inland, " inhabit a beautiful
grazing district, not surpassed by any I have seen for verdure,
water privileges, climate, or health. This tribe forms an- honor-
able exception to the general Indian character — being more
noble, industrious, sensible, and better disposed toward the
whites and their improvements in the arts and sciences ; and
though brave as Csesar, the whites have nothing to dread at
their hands in case of their dealing out to them what they con-
ceive to be right and equitable."

When this agent arrived at. the missionary station among
the Nez Perces, he was met there by a large body of the In-
dians with twenty-two of their chiefs. The missionaries re-
ceived him " with joyful countenances and glad hearts ;" the
Indians, " with civility, gravity, and dignified reserve."

He addressed them at length, explaining to them the kind
intentions of the Government toward them. They listened

108 A CENTURY OJ1 DISHONOB.

with "gravity, fixed attention, and decorum." Finally an aged
chief, ninety. years of age, arose and said : "I speak to-day ;
perhaps to-morrow I die. I am the oldest chief of the tribe.
I was the high chief when your great brothers, Lewis and
Clarke, visited this country. They visited me, and honored me
with their friendship and counsel. I showed them my numer-
ous wounds, received in bloody battle with the Snakes. They
told me it was not good ; it was better to be at peace ; gave
me a flag of truce ; I held it up high. We met, and talked,
but never fought again. Clarke pointed to this day — to you
and this occasion. We have long waited in expectation ; sent
three of our sons to Red River school to prepare for it ; two
of them sleep with their fathers ; the other is here, and can be
ears, mouth, and pen for us. I can say no more ; I am quick-
ly tired; my voice and limbs tremble. I am glad I live to see
you and this day; but I shall soon be still and quiet in
death."

At this council the Nez Perces elected a head chief named
Ellis, and adopted the following Code of Laws :

Art. 1. Whoever wilfully takes life shall be hung.
Art. 2. Whoever burns a dwelling-house shall be hung.
Art. 8. Whoever burns an out-building shall be imprisoned six months,
receive fifty lashes, and pay all damages.
Art. 4. Whoever carelessly burns a house or any property shall pay

Art. 5. If any one enter a dwelling without permission of the occupant,
the chiefs shall punish him as they think proper. Public rooms are ex-
cepted.

Art. 6. If any one steal, he shall pay back twofold ; and if it be the
value of a beaver-skin or less, he shall receive twenty-five lashes ; and if
the value is over a beaver-skin, he shall pay back twofold, and receive
fifty lashes.

Art. 7. If any one take a horse and ride it, without permission, or take
any article and use it, without liberty, he shall pay for the use of it, and
receive from twenty to fifty lashes, as the chief shall direct.

THE NEZ PEUCfiS. 109

Art. 8. If any one enter a field and injure the crops, or throw down the
fence, so that cattle or horses go in and do damage, he shall pay all dam-
ages, and receive twenty-five lashes for every offence.

Art. 9. Those only may keep dogs who travel or live among the game.
If a dog kill a lamb, calf, or any domestic animal, the owner shall pay the
damage, and kill the dog.

Art. 10. If an Indian raise a gun or other weapon against a white man,
it shall be reported to the chiefs, and they shall punish him. If a white
man do the same to an Indian, it shall be reported to Dr. White, and he
shall punish or redress it.

Art. 11. If an Indian break these laws, he shall be punished by his
chiefs ; if a white man break them, he shall be reported to the agent, and
punished at his instance.

*

These laws, the agent says, he "proposed one by one, leaving
them as free to reject as to accept. They were greatly pleased
with all proposed, but wished a heavier penalty to some, and
suggested the dog-law, which was annexed."

In a history of Oregon written by one W. H. Gray, of As-
toria, we find this Indian agent spoken of as a " notorious
blockhead." Mr. Gray's methods of mention of all persons
toward whom he has antagonism or dislike are violent and un-
dignified, and do not redound either to his credit as a writer
or his credibility as a witness. But it is impossible to avoid
the impression that in this instance he was not far from the
truth. Surely one cannot read, without mingled horror and
incredulity, this programme of the whipping -post, offered as
one of the first instalments of the United States Government's
" kind intentions " toward these Indians ; one of the first prac-
tical illustrations given them of the kind of civilization the
United States Government would recommend and introduce.

We are not surprised to read in another narrative of affairs
in Oregon, a little later, that " the Indians want pay for being
whipped, the same as they did for praying — to please the mis-
sionaries— during the great revival of 1839. * * * Some of the
influential men in the tribe desired to know of what benefit

110 A CENTUKY OF DISHONOR.

this whipping-system was going to be to them. They said
they were willing it should continue, provided they were to
receive shirts and pants and blankets as a reward for being
whipped. They had been whipped a good many times, and
had got nothing for it, and it had done them no good. If this
state of things was to continue, it was all good for nothing,
and they would throw it away."

The Secretary of War does not appear to have seen this
aspect of his agent's original efforts in the line of jurispru-
dence. He says of the report which includes this astounding
code, merely that "it furnishes some deeply interesting and
curious details respecting certain of the Indian tribes in that
remote part of our territories," and that the conduct of the
Nez Perces on the occasion of this important meeting "im-
presses one most agreeably."

A report submitted at the same time by the Rev. Mr. Spaul-
ding, who had lived six years as missionary among the Nez
Perces, is much pleasanter reading. He says that "nearly all
the principal men and chiefs are members of the school ; that
they are as industrious in their schools as on their farms.
They cultivate their lands with much skill and to good advan-
tage, and many more would do so if they had the means.
About one hundred are printing their own books with the
pen. This keeps up a deep interest, as they daily have new
lessons to print ; and what they print must be committed to
memory as soon as possible. A good number are now so far
advanced in reading and printing as to render much assistance
in teaching. Their books are taken home at night, and every
lodge becomes a school-room. Their lessons are Scripture les-
sons ; no others (except the laws) seem to interest them."

Even this missionary seems to have fallen under some strange
glamour on the subject of the whipping-code; for ho adds:
"The laws which you so happily prepared, and which were
unanimously adopted by the people, I havo printed in the form

THE NEZ PERCfiS. Ill

of a small school-book. A great number of the school now
read them fluently."

In the next year's report of the Secretary of War we read
that "the Nez Perc6 tribe have adopted a few simple and
plain laws as their code, which will teach them self-restraint,
and is the beginning of government on their part." The Sec-
retary also thinks it " very remarkable that there should so
soon be several well supported, well attended, and well con-
ducted schools in Oregon." (Not at all remarkable, considering
that the Congregationalists, the Methodist Episcopalians, and
the Roman Catholics have all had missionaries at work there
for eight years.)

In 1846, the Nez Percys, with the rest of the Oregon tribes,
disappear from the official records of the Indian Bureau. " It
will be necessary to make some provision for conducting our
relations with the Indian tribes west of the Eocky Mountains,"
it is said ; but, "the whole subject having been laid before Con-
gress, it was not deemed advisable to continue a service that
was circumscribed in its objects, and originally designed to be
temporary." The founder of the whipping-post in Oregon was
therefore relieved from his duties, and it is to be hoped his
laws speedily fell into disuse. The next year all the Protestant
missions in Oregon were abandoned, in consequence of the
frightful massacre by the Cayuses of the missionary families
living among them.* But the Nez Perces, though deprived of
their teaching, did not give up the faith and the practice they
had taught them. Six years later General Benjamin Alvord
bore the following testimony to their religious character :

"In the spring of 1853 a white man,who had passed the pre-
vious winter in the country of the Nez Perc6s, came to the
military post at the Dalles, and on being questioned as to the
manners and customs of the tribe, he said that he wintered

* See Appendix, Art. XTTT.

112 A CBNTUEY OF DISHONOR

with a band of several hundred in number, and that the whole
party assembled every evening and morning for prayer, the
exercises being conducted by one of themselves in their own
language. He stated that on Sunday they assembled for ex-
hortation and worship."

In 1851 a superintendent and three agents were appointed
for Indian service in Oregon. Treaties were negotiated with
some of the tribes, but they were not ratified, and in 1853
there was, in consequence, a wide-spread dissatisfaction among
all the Indians in the region. "They have become distrust-
ful of all promises made them by the United States," says the
Oregon superintendent, " and believe the design of the Govern-
ment is to defer doing anything for them till they have wasted
away. The settlement of the whites on the tracts which they
regarded as secured to them by solemn treaty stipulations, re-
sults in frequent misunderstandings between them and the
settlers, and occasions and augments bitter animosities and re-
sentments. I am in almost daily receipt of complaints and pe-
titions for a redress of wrongs from both parties."

Governor Stevens, of Washington Territory, in charge of the
Northern Pacific Railroad Explorations and Survey, wrote, this
year, " These hitherto neglected tribes, whose progress from
the wild wanderers of the plains to !kmd and hospitable neigh-
bors is personally known to you, are entitled, by every consid-
eration of justice and humanity, to the fatherly care of the
Government."

In Governor Stevens's report is to be found a comprehensive
and intelligible account of all the Indian tribes in Oregon and
Washington Territory. The greater part of the Nez Percys'
country was now within the limits of Washington Territory,
only a few bands remaining in Oregon. They were estimated
to number at least eighteen hundred, and were said to be a
" rich and powerful tribe, owning many horses." Every year
they crossed the mountains to hunt buffalo on the plains of
the Missouri.

THE NEZ PEKOES. 113

In 1855 there was a general outbreak of hostilities on the
part of the Oregon Indians. Tribe after tribe, even among
those who had been considered friendly, fell into the ranks of
the hostiles, and some base acts of treachery were committed.
The Oregon settlers, menaced with danger on all sides, became
naturally so excited and terrified that their actions were hasty
and ill-advised. " They are without discipline, without order,
and similar to madmen," says one official report. " Every day
they run off the horses and the cattle of the friendly Indians.
I will soon no longer be able to restrain the friendly Indians.
They are indignant at conduct so unworthy of the whites, who
have made so many promises to respect and protect them if
they remain faithful friends. I am very sure, if the volunteers
are not arrested in their brigand actions, our Indians will save
themselves by flying to the homes of their relations, the Nez
Percys, who have promised them help ; and then all these In-
dians of Oregon would join in the common defence until they
be entirely exterminated."

It is difficult to do full justice to the moral courage which
is shown by Indians who remain friendly to whites under such
circumstances as these. The traditions of their race, the pow-
erful influence of public sentiment among their relatives and
friends, and, in addition, terror for their own lives — all com-
bine in times of such outbreaks to draw even the friendliest
tribes into sympathy and co-operation with those who are
making war on whites.

At this time the hostile Indians in Oregon sent word to the Nez
Percys, "Join us in the war against the whites, or we will wipe
you out." They said, "We have made the whites run out of the
country, and we will now make the friendly Indians do the same."

" What can the friendly Indians do?" wrote the colonel of a
company of Washington Territory Volunteers ; " they have no
ammunition, and the whites will give them none ; and the hos-
tiles say to them, * We have plenty ; come and join us, and save

6*

114 A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

your lives.' The Nez Perces are very much alarmed; they
say, ' We have no ammunition to defend ourselves with if wo
are attacked.7 "

The Oregon superintendent writes to General Wool (in
command at this time of the Department of the Pacific), im-
ploring him to send troops to Oregon to protect both friendly
Indians and white settlers, and to enable this department to
maintain guarantees secured to these Indians by treaty stipula-
tions. He says that the friendly Indians are " willing to sub-
mit to almost any sacrifice to obtain peace, but there may be
a point beyond which they could not be induced to go without
a struggle."

This outbreak terminated after some sharp fighting, and
about equal losses on both sides, in what the Oregon super*
intendent calls " a sort of armistice," which left the Indians
" much emboldened," with the impression on their minds that
they have the " ability to contend successfully against the en-
tire white race."

Moreover, " the non- ratification of the treaties heretofore
made to extinguish their title to the lands necessary for the
occupancy and use of our citizens, seems to have produced no
little disappointment ; and the continued extension of our set-
tlements into their territory, without any compensation being
made to them, is a constant source of dissatisfaction and hostile
feeling.

" It cannot be expected that Indians situated like those in
Oregon and Washington Territory, occupying extensive sections
of country where, from the game and otherwise, they derive a
comfortable support, will quietly and peaceably submit, without
any equivalent, to be deprived of their homes and possessions,
and to be driven off to some other locality where they cannot
find their usual means of subsistence. Such a proceeding is not
only contrary to our policy hitherto, but is repugnant alike to
the dictates of humanity and the principles of natural justice.

THE NEZ PEBCfe. 115

" The principle of recognizing and respecting the usufruct
right of the Indians to the lands occupied by them has not
been so strictly adhered to in the case of the tribes in the Ter-
ritories of Oregon and Washington. When a territorial gov-
ernment was first provided for Oregon — which then embraced
the present Territory of Washington — strong inducements were
held out to our people to emigrate and settle there, without the
usual arrangements being made in advance for the extinguish-
ment of the title of the Indians who occupied and claimed the
lands. Intruded upon, ousted of their homes and possessions
without any compensation, and deprived in most cases of their
accustomed means of support, without any arrangement having
been made to enable them to establish and maintain themselves
in other locations, it is not a matter of surprise that they have
committed many depredations upon our citizens, and been ex-
asperated to frequent acts of hostility."

As was to be expected, the armistice proved of no avail ; and
in 1858 the unfortunate Territories had another Indian war on
their hands. In this war we find the Nez Perces fighting on
the side of the United States against the hostile Indians. One
of the detachments of United States troops was saved from de-
struction only by taking refuge with them. Nearly destitute
of ammunition, and surrounded by hundreds of hostile Indians,
the little company escaped by night ; and " after a ride of nine-
ty miles mostly at a gallop, and without a rest, reached Snake
River," where they were met by this friendly tribe, who " re-
ceived them with open arms, succored the wounded men, and
crossed in safety the whole command over the difficult and
dangerous river."

The officer in command of the Nez Perc6 band writes as
follows, in his report to the Indian Commissioner :

" Allow me, my dear sir, while this general war is going on,
to point you to at least a few green spots where the ravages of
war do not as yet extend, and which thus far are untainted

116 A CBNTtTET OF DISHOHOB,

and unaffected, with a view of so retaining them that we may
hereafter point to them as oases in this desert of war. These
green spots are the Nez Perces, the Flat -heads, and Pend
d'Oreilles. In this connection I refer with grateful pride to
an act of Colonel Wright, which embodies views and motives
which, endorsed and carried out hy the Government, must re-
dound to his credit and praise, and be the means of building
up, at no distant day, a bold, brave, warlike, and numerous
people.

" Before leaving Walla-Walla, Colonel Wright assembled the
Nez Perc6 people, told them his object was to war with and
punish our enemies ; but as this great people were and ever
had been our friends, he wanted their friendship to be as en-
during as the mountains around which they lived ; and in order
that no difference of views or difficulty might arise, that their
mutual promises should be recorded,"

With this view he there made a treaty of friendship with
them, and thirty of the bravest warriors and chiefs at once mar-
shalled themselves to accompany him against the enemy.

When Colonel Wright asked these Indians what they want-
ed, " their reply was worthy of a noble race — ' Peace, ploughs,
and schools.' " At this time they had no agent appointed to
attend to their welfare ; they were raising wheat, corn, and
vegetables with the rude means at their command, and still
preserved the faith and many of the practices taught them by
the missionaries thirteen years before.

In 1859 peace was again established in Oregon, and the In-
dians "considered as conquered." The treaties of 1855 were
ratified by the Senate, and this fact went far to restore tran-
quillity in the territories. Congress was implored by the super-
intendents to realize "the importance of making the appropria-
tions for fulfilling those treaty stipulations at the earliest prac-
ticable moment ;" that it may " prevent the recurrence of an-
other savage war, necessarily bloody and devastating to our

THE NEZ PERCYS. 117

settlements, extended under the authority and sanction of our
Government." With marvellous self-restraint, the superintend-
ents do not enforce their appeals by a reference to the fact that,
if the treaties had been fulfilled in the outset, all the hostilities
of the last four years might probably have been avoided.

The reservation secured to the Nez Percys was a fine tract
of country, one hundred miles long and sixty in width — well
watered, timbered, and of great natural resources. Already the
Indians had begun to practice irrigation in their fields; had
large herds of horses, and were beginning to give attention to
improving the breed. Some of them could read and write
their own language, and many of them professed Christianity,
and were exemplary in their conduct — a most remarkable fact,
proving the depth of the impression the missionary teachings
must have made. The majority of them wore the American
costume, and showed " their progress in civilization by attach-
ing little value to the gewgaws and trinkets which so generally
captivate the savage."

In less than two years the peace of this noble tribe was
again invaded ; this time by a deadly foe — the greed of gold.
In 1861 there were said to be no less than ten thousand miners
in the Nez Perc6 country prospecting for gold. Now arose
the question, What will the Government do 3 Will it protect
the rights of the Indians or not ?

" To attempt to restrain miners would be like attempting to
restrain the whirlwind," writes the superintendent of Washing-
ton Territory ; and he confesses that, " seeing the utter impossi-
bility of preventing miners from going to the mines," he has
refrained from taking any steps which, by a certain want of
success, would tend to weaken the force of the law.

For the next few years the Nez Percys saw with dismay the
steady stream of settlers pouring into their country. That
they did not resist it by force is marvellous, and can only be
explained by the power of a truly Christian spirit.

118 A CfiKTURY Otf DISHONOR.

" Their reservation was overrun by the enterprising miners ;
treaty stipulations were disregarded and trampled under foot;
towns were established thereon, and all the means that cupid-
ity could invent or disloyalty achieve were resorted to to shake
their confidence in the Government. They were disturbed in
the peaceable possession of what they regarded as their vested
rights, sacredly secured by treaty. They were informed that
the Government was destroyed, and that whatever treaties were
made would never be carried out. All resistance on their part
proved unavailing, and inquietude and discontent predominated
among them," says the Governor of Idaho, in 1865. Shortly
after, by the organization of that new Territory, the Nez
Perces' reservation had been removed from the jurisdiction of
Washington Territory to that of Idaho.

A powerful party was organized in the tribe, advocating the
forming of a league with the Crows and Blackfeet against the
whites. The non-arrival of promised supplies; the non-pay-
ment of promised moneys; the unchecked influx of miners
throughout the reservation, put strong weapons into the hands
of these disaffected ones. But the chiefs " remained firm and
unwavering in their devotion to the Government and the laws.
They are intelligent — their head chief, Sawyer, particularly so
— and tell their people to still wait patiently." And yet, at
this very time, there was due from the United States Gov-
ernment to this chief Sawyer six hundred and twenty -five
dollars I He had for six months been suffering for the com-
monest necessaries of life, and had been driven to disposing of
his vouchers at fifty cents on the dollar to purchase necessa-
ries. The warriors also, who fought for us so well in 1856,
were still unpaid ; although in the seventh article of the treaty
of 1863 it had been agreed that " the claims of certain members
of the Nez Perc6 tribe against the Government, for services
rendered and horses furnished by them to the Oregon Mount-
ed Volunteers, as appears by certificates issued by W. H. Faunt-

THE NEZ PERCYS. 119

leroy, Acting Regimental Quartermaster, and commanding. Or-
egon Volunteers, on the 6th of March, 1856, at Carnp Corne-
lius, and amounting to $4665, shall be paid to them in full in
gold coin."

How many communities of \vhite men would remain peace-
able, loyal, and friendly under such a strain as this?

In 1866 the Indian Bureau report of the state of our diplo-
matic relations with the Nez Percys is that the treaty con-
cluded with them in 1863 was ratified by the Senate, " with an
amendment which awaited the action of the Indians. The
ratification of this treaty has been delayed for several years for
various reasons, partly arising from successive changes in the
Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Idaho, whose varying opin-
ions on the subject of the treaty have caused doubts in the
minds of senators. A later treaty had been made, but, on •
careful consideration of the subject, it was deemed advisable to
carry into effect that of 1863. The Nez Percys claimed title
to a very large district of country comprised in what are now
organized as Oregon, "Washington, and Idaho, but principally
within the latter Territory ; and already a large white popula-
tion is pressing upon them in the search for gold. They are
peaceable, industrious, and friendly, and altogether one of the
most promising of the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains,
having profited largely by the labors of missionaries among
them."

By the , treaty ratified in this year they give up ". all their
lands except a reservation defined by certain natural bounda-
ries, and agree to remove to this reservation within one year.
Where they have improvements on lands outside of it, such
improvements are to be appraised and paid for. The tillable,
lands are to be surveyed into tracts of twenty acres each, and
allotted -to such Indians as desire to hold lands in severalty.
The Government is to continue the anntftties due under former
treaties, and, in addition, pay the tribe, or expend for them for

120 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

certain specific purposes having their improvement in view,
the sum of $262,500, and a moderate sum is devoted to
homes and salaries for chiefs. The right of way is secured
through the reservation, and the Government undertakes to
reserve all important springs and watering-places for public
use."

In this same year the Governor of Idaho writes, in his an-
nual report to the Department of the Interior: "Prominent
among the tribes of Northern Idaho stand the Nez Perces, a
majority of whom boast that they have ever been the faith-
ful friends of the white man. But a few over half of the en-
tire tribe of the Nez Percys are under treaty. The fidelity of
those under treaty, even under the most discouraging circum-
stances, must commend itself to the favorable consideration of
the Department. The non-payment of their annuities has had
its natural effect on the minds of some of those under treaty ;
but their confiding head chief, Sawyer, remains unmoved, and
on all occasions is found the faithful apologist for any failure
of the Government Could this tribe have been kept aloof
from the contaminating vices of white men, and had it been in
the power of the Government promptly to comply with the
stipulations of the treaty of 1855, there can be no doubt but
that their condition at this time would have been a most pros-
perous one, and that the whole of the Nez Perc6 nation would
by this time have been willing to come under treaty, and settle
on the reservation with those already there."

In 1867 the patience of the Nez Perces is beginning to show
signs of wearing out. the Governor of Idaho writes : " This
disaffection is great, and serious trouble is imminent. It could
all be settled by prompt payment by the Government of their
just dues ; but if delayed too long I greatly fear open hostilities.
They have been patient, but promises and explanations are los-
ing force with them now. * * * Their grievances are urged with
such earnestness that even Sawyer, who has always been our

THE NEZ PEKCES. 121

apologist, has in a measure abandoned his pacific policy, and
asks boldly that we do them justice. * * * Even now it may not
be too late ; but, if neglected, war may be reasonably expected.
Should the Nez Perces strike a blow, all over our Territory
and around our boundaries will blaze the signal-fires and gleam
the tomahawks of the savages — Kootenays, Pen d'Oreilles, Coeur
d'Alenes, Blackfeet, Flat-heads, Spokanes, Pelouses, Bannocks,
and Shoshones will be involved."

This disaffection, says the agent, " began to show itself soon
after the visit of George C. Haigh, Esq., special agent, last De-
cember, to obtain their assent to the amendments to the treaty
of June 9th, 1863 — the non-ratification of that treaty had gone
on so long, and promises made them by Governor Lyon that it
would not be ratified, and that he was authorized to make a
.new treaty with them by which they would retain all of their
country, as given them under the treaty of 1851, except the
site of the town of Lewiston. They had also been informed
in March, 1866, that Governor Lyon would be here in the June
following, to pay them back-annuities due under the treaty of
1855. The failure to carry out these promises, and the idea
they have that the stipulations of the treaty of 1863 will be
carried out in the same manner, is one of the causes of their
bad feeling. It showed itself plainly at the council lately held,
and is on the increase. If there is the same delay in carrying
out the stipulations of the treaty of 1863 that there has been
in that of 1855, some of the chiefs with their bands will join
the hostile Indians. There are many things.it is impossible to
explain to them. They cannot understand why the $1185 that
was promised by Governor Lyon to the Indian laborers on the
church is not paid. He told them when the walls were up
they should receive their pay. These laborers were poor men,
and such inducements were held out to them that they com*
menced the work in good faith, with the full expectation of re-
ceiving their pay when their labors ceased."

122 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

The head chief Sawyer's pay is still in arrears. For the last
quarter of 1863, and the first and second of 1864, he has re-
ceived no pay. No wonder he Las ceased to be the " apolo-
gist" of the Government, which four years ago promised him
an annuity of $500 a year.

Spite of this increasing disaffection the Nez Perces are in-
dustrious and prosperous. They raised in this year 15,000
bushels of wheat. " Many of them carried their wheat to be
ground to the mills, -while many sold the grain to packers for
feed, while much of it is boiled whole for food. Some few of
the better class have had their wheat ground, and sold the flour
in the mining-camps at lower prices than packers could lay it
down in the camps. Some have small pack-trains running
through the summer; one in particular, Cru-cru-lu-ye, runs
some fifteen animals; he sometimes packs for whites, and
again runs on his own account. A Clearwater Station mer-
chant a short time ago informed me of his buying some oats
of Cru-cru-lu-ye last fall. After the grain had been weighed,
and emptied out of the sacks, the Indian brought the empty
sa-cks to the scales to have them weighed, and the tare deducted,
saying he only wanted pay for the oats. Their sales of melons,
tomatoes, corn, potatoes, squashes, green pease, etc., during the
summer, in the different towns and mining-camps, bring in some
$2000 to $3000. Their stock of horses and cattle is increasing
fast, and with the benefits to be derived from good American
stallions, and good bulls and cows, to be distributed to them
under the stipulations of the treaty of 1863, they will rapidly
increase in wealth."

In 1869 their reservation is still unsurveyed, and when the
Indians claim that white settlers are establishing themselves in-
side the lines there is no way of proving it, and the agent says
all he can do is to promise that " the white man's heart shall
be better ;" and thus the matter will rest until another disturb-
ance arises, when the same complaints are made, and the same

THE NEZ PEECfiS. 123

answers given as before — that " the white man's heart shall be
better, and the boundary-line shall be surveyed."

Other treaty stipulations are still unfulfilled ; and the non-
treaty party, while entirely peaceable, is very strong, and im'
movably opposed to treaties.

In 1870, seven years after it was promised, the long deferred
survey of the reservation was made. The superintendent and
the agent both remonstrated, but in vain, against the manner in
which it was done; and three years later a Board of Special
Commissioners, appointed to inquire into the condition of the
Indians in Idaho, examined the fence put up at that time, and
reported that it was " a most scandalous fraud. It is a post-
and-board fence. The posts are not well set. Much of the lum-
ber is deficient in width and length. The posts are not dressed.
The lumber laps at any joint where it may chance to meet,
whether on the posts or between them, and the boards are not
jointed on the posts where they meet; they are lapped and
fastened generally with one nail, so that they are falling down
rapidly. The lumber was cut on the reservation. The con-
tract price of the fence was very high ; the fencing done in
places of no value to any one, for the reason that water cannot
be had for irrigation. The Government cannot be a party to
such frauds on the people who intrust it with their property."

In this year a commission was sent to Oregon to hold coun-
cil with the band of Nez Perces occupying Wallowa Valley, in
Oregon, " with a view to their removal, if practicable, to the
Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. They reported this removal
to be impracticable, and the "Wallowa Valley has been with-
drawn from sale, and set apart for their use and occupation by
Executive order."*

This commission report that one of the most troublesome
questions in the way of the Government's control of Indian af-

* Report of the Secretary of the Interior for 1878.

124 A CENTURY OP DISHOtfOK.

fairs in Idaho is the contest between the Catholic and Protes-
tant churches. This strife is a great detriment to the Indians.
To illustrate this, they quote Chief Joseph's reason for not
wishing schools on his reservation. He was the chief of the
non-treaty band of Nez Perces occupying the Wallowa Valley,
in Oregon :

" Do you want schools and school-houses on the Wallowa
Reservation ?" asked the commissioners.

Joseph. "No, we do not want schools or school-houses on
the Wallowa Reservation."

Com. "Why do you not want schools?"

Joseph. "They will teach us to have churches."

Com. " Do you not want churches 3"

Joseph. " No, we do not want churches."

Com. " Why do you not want churches ?"

Joseph. "They will teach us to quarrel about Q-od, as the
Catholics and Protestants do on the Nez Perc6 Reservation,
and at other places. We do not want to learn that. We may
quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we
never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that."

Great excitement prevailed among the settlers in Oregon at
the cession of the Wallowa Valley to the Indians. The pres-
ence of United States soldiers prevented any outbreak ; but the
resentment of the whites was very strong, and threats were
openly made that the Indians should not be permitted to oc-
cupy it; and in 1875 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
writes :

" The settlements made in the Wallowa Valley, which has
for years been the pasture-ground of the large herds of horses
owned by Joseph's band, will occasion more or less trouble
between this band and the whites, until Joseph is induced or
compelled to settle on his reservation."

It is only two years since this valley was set apart by Execu-
tive order for the use and occupation of these Indians; already

THE NEZ PEIiCES. 125

the Department is contemplating " compelling " them to leave
it and go to the reservation in Idaho. There were stormy
scenes there also during this year. Suits were brought against
all the employes of the Lapwai Agency, and a claim set up for
all the lands of the agency, and for many of the Indian farms,
by one Langf ord, representing the old claim of the missionaries,
to whom a large tract of ground had been ceded some thirty
years before. He attempted to take forcible possession of the
place, and was ejected finally by military force, after the de-
cision of the Attorney-general had been given that his claim
was invalid.

The Indian Bureau recommended a revocation of the execu-
tive order giving the Wallowa Valley to Joseph and his band.
In June of this year President Grant revoked the order, and
in the autumn a commission was sent out " to visit these In-
dians, with a view to secure their permanent settlement on the
reservation, their early entrance on a civilized life, and to adjust
the difficulties then existing between them and the settlers."

It is worth while to study with some care the reasons which
this commission gave to Chief Joseph why the Wallowa Val-
ley, which had been given to him by Executive order in 1873,
must be taken away from him by Executive order in 1875 :

" Owing to the coldness of the climate, it is not a suitable
location for an Indian reservation. * * * It is now in part set-
tled by white squatters for grazing purposes. * * * The Presi-
dent claimed that he extinguished the Indian title to it by the
treaty of 1863. * * * It is embraced within the limits of the
State of Oregon. * * * The State of Oregon could not prob-
ably be induced to cede the jurisdiction of the valley to the
United States for an Indian reservation. * * * In the conflicts
which might arise in the future, as in the past, between him
and the whites, the President rpight not be able to justify or
defend Lira. * * * A part of the valley had already been sur-
veyed and opened to settlement : * * * if, by some arrange-

126 A CENTUEY OP DISHOffOB.

inent, the white settlers in the valley could be induced to leave
it, others would come."

To all these statements Joseph replied that he " asked noth-
ing of the President. He was able to take care of himself. He
did not desire Wallow a Valley as a reservation, for that would
subject him and his band to the will of, and dependence on,
another, and to laws not of their own making. He was dis-
posed to live peaceably. He and his band had suffered wrong
rather than do wrong. One of their number was wickedly
slain by a white man during the last summer, but he would
not avenge his death."

" The serious and feeling manner in which he uttered these
sentiments was impressive," the commissioners say, and they
proceeded to reply to him " that the President was not dis-
posed to deprive him of any just right, or govern him by his
individual will, but merely subject him to the same just and
equal laws by which he himself as well as all his people were
ruled."

What does it mean when commissioners sent by the Presi-
dent to induce a band of Indians to go on a reservation to live,
tell them that they shall be subjected on that reservation
" merely to the same just and equal laws " by which the Pres-
ident and " all his people are ruled ?" And still more, what is
the explanation of their being so apparently unaware of the
enormity of the lie that they leave it on official record, signed
by their names in full ? It is only explained, as thousands of
other things in the history of our dealings with the Indians
are only to be explained, by the habitual indifference, careless-
ness, and inattention with which questions relative to Indian
affairs and legislation thereon are handled and disposed of, in
whatever way seems easiest and shortest for the time being.
The members of this commission knew perfectly well that the
instant Joseph and his band moved on to the reservation they
became subject to laws totally different from those by which

THE NEZ PERCYS. 127

the President and "all his people were ruled," and neither
" just " nor " equal :" laws forbidding them to go beyond cer-
tain bounds without a pass from the agent ; laws making them
really just as much prisoners as convicts in a prison — the only
difference being that the reservation is an un walled out-of-
door prison ; laws giving that agent power to summon milita-
ry power at any moment, to enforce any command he might
choose to lay on them, and to shoot them if they refused to
obey.* " The same just and equal laws by which the President
himself and all his people are ruled!" Truly it is a psychologi-
cal phenomenon that four men should be found willing to leave
it on record under their own signatures that they said this thing.

Farther on in the same report there is an enumeration of
some of the experiences which the Nez Perces who are on the
Idaho Keservation have had of the advantages of living there,
and of the manner in which the Government has fulfilled its
promises by which it induced them to go there ; undoubtedly
these were all as well known to Chief Joseph as to the com-
missioners. For twenty-two years he had had an opportunity
to study the workings of the reservation policy. They say :

"During an interview held with the agent and the treaty
Indians, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there were suf-
ficient unoccupied tillable lands for Joseph's band on the res-
ervation, and for the further purpose of securing their co-oper-
ation to aid us in inducing Joseph to come upon the reserva-
tion, facts were brought to our attention of a failure on the
part of the Government to fulfil its treaty stipulations with
these Indians. The commission therefore deem it their duty
to call the attention of the Government to this subject.

" 1st. Article second of the treaty of June 9th, 1863, provides
that no white man — excepting such as may be employed by the

* Witness the murder of Big Snake on the Ponca Keservation, Indian
Territory, in the summer of 1879.

128 A CENTUBY OF DISHONOB.

Indian Department — shall be permitted to reside upon the res-
ervation without permission of the tribe, and the superintend-
ent and the agent. Nevertheless, four white men are occupy-
ing or claiming large tracts on the reservation.

"It is clearly the duty of the Government to adjust and
quiet these claims, and remove the parties from the reserva-
tion. Each day's delay to fulfil this treaty stipulation adds to
the distrust of the Indians in the good faith of the Govern-
ment.

" 2d. Article third of the same treaty of 1863 provides for the
survey of the land suitable for cultivation into lots of twenty
acres each ; while a survey is reported to have been early made,
no measures were then, or have been since, taken to adjust farm
limits to the lines of the surveyed lots.

" 3d. Rules and regulations for continuing the possession of
these lots and the improvements thereon in the families of de-
ceased Indians, have not been prescribed, as required by the
treaty.

" 4th. It is also provided that certificates or deeds for such
tracts shall be issued to individual Indians.

" The failure of the Government to comply with this impor-
tant provision of the treaty causes much uneasiness among the
Indians, who are little inclined to spend their labor and means
in improving ground held by the uncertain tenure of the pleas-
ure of an agent.

" 5th. Article seventh of the treaty provides for a payment
of four thousand six hundred and sixty-five dollars in gold coin
to them for services and horses furnished the Oregon Mounted
Volunteers in 1856. It is asserted by the Indians that this
provision of the treaty has hitherto been disregarded by the
Government."

The commissioners say that " every consideration of justice
and equity, as well as expediency, demands from the Govern-
ment a faithful and literal compliance with all its treaty obli-

THE NEZ PEBCfiS. 129

gations toward the Indians. A failure to do this is looked
upon as bad faitb, and can be productive of only bad re-
sults."

At last Chief Joseph consented to remove from the Wallowa
Valley with his band, and go to the Lapwai Reservation. The
incidents of the council in which this consent was finally
wrung from him, are left on record in Chief Joseph's own
words, in an article written by him (through an interpreter)
and published in the North American Review in 1874. It is
a remarkable contribution to Indian history.

It drew out a reply from General 0. 0. Howard, who called
his paper " The true History of the Wallowa Campaign ;" pub-
lished in the North American Review two months after Chief
Joseph's paper.

Between the accounts given by General Howard and by
Chief Joseph of the events preceding the Nez Perce war, there
are noticeable discrepancies.

General Howard says that he listened to the "oft -repeated
dreamer nonsense of the chief ,' Too-hool-hool-suit,' with no
impatience, but finally said to him : ' Twenty times over I hear
that the earth is your mother, and about the chieftainship of
the earth. I want to hear it no more.' "

Chief Joseph says : " General Howard lost his temper, and
said * Shut up I I don't want to hear any more of such
talk.'

" Too-hool-hool-suit answered, * Who are you, that you ask
ns to talk, and then tell me I sha'n't talk? Are you the Great
Spirit? Did you make the world?' "

General Howard, quoting from his record at the time, says:
" The rough old fellow, in his most provoking tone, says some-
thing in a short sentence, looking fiercely at me. The inter-
preter quickly says : l He demands what person pretends to di-
vide this land, and put me on it ?' In the most decided voice
I said, * I am the man. I stand here for the President, and

6

130 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

there is no spirit, bad or good, that will hinder me. My orders
are plain, and will be executed.' "

Chief Joseph says: "General Howard replied, * You are an
impudent fellow, and I will put you in the guard-house,' and
then ordered a soldier to arrest him."

General Howard says : " After telling the Indians that this
bad advice would be their ruin, I asked the chiefs to go with
me to look at their land. c The old man (Too-hool-hool-suit)
shall not go. I will leave him with Colonel Perry.' He says,
1 Do you want to scare me with reference to my body ¥ I said,
4 1 will leave your body with Colonel Perry.' I then arose and
led him out of the council, and gave him into the charge of
Colonel Perry."

Chief Joseph says : " Too-hool-hool-suit made no resistance.
He asked General Howard, 'Is that your order? I don't care.
I have expressed my heart to you. I have nothing to take
back. I have spoken for my country. You can arrest me, but
you cannot change me, or make me take back what I have
said.' The soldiers came forward and seized my friend, and
took him to the guard - house. My men whispered among
themselves whether they should let this thing be done. I
counselled them to submit. * * * Too-hool-hool-suit was pris-
oner for five days before he was released."

General Howard, it will be observed, does not use the word
" arrested," but as he says, later, " Too-hool-hool-suit was re-
leased on the pledge of Looking-glass and White Bird, and on
his own earnest promise to behave better," it is plain that Chief
Joseph did not misstate the facts. This Indian chief, therefore,
was put under military arrest, and confined for five days, for
uttering what General Howard calls a " tirade " in a council to
which the Indians had been asked to come for the purpose of
consultation and expression of sentiment.

Does not Chief Joseph speak common-sense, as well as natu-
ral feeling, in saying, " I turned to my pcoplo and said, ' The

THE NEZ PERCYS. 131

arrest of Too-hool-hool-suit was wrong, but we will not resent
the insult. We were invited to this council to express our
hearts, and we have done so.' "

If such and so swift penalty as this, for " tirades " in council,
were the law of our land, especially in the District of Columbia,
it would be " no just cause of complaint " when Indians suffer
it. But considering the frequency, length, and safety of "ti-
rades" in all parts of America, it seems unjust not to permit
Indians to deliver them. However, they do come under the
head of " spontaneous productions of the soil ;" and an Indian
on a reservation is "invested with no such proprietorship" in
anything which comes under that head.*

Chief Joseph and his band consented to move. Chief Joseph
says : " I said in my heart that, rather than have war, I would
give up my country. I would give up my father's grave. I
would give up everything rather than have the blood of white
men upon the hands of my people."

It was not easy for Joseph to bring his people to consent to
move. The young men wished to fight. It has been told that,
at this time, Chief Joseph rode one day through his village,
with a revolver in each hand, saying he would shoot the first
one of his warriors that resisted the Government. Finally, they
gathered all the stock they could find, and began the move. A
storm came, and raised the river so high that some of the cat-
tle could not be taken across. Indian guards were put in charge
of the cattle left behind. White men attacked these guards
and took the cattle. After this Joseph could no longer restrain
his men, and the warfare began, which lasted over two months.
It was a masterly campaign on the part of the Indians, They
were followed by General Howard ; they had General Crook
on their right, and General Miles in front, but they were not
once hemmed in ; and, at last, when they surrendered at Beat

* Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner for 1878, p. 6&.

132 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

Paw Mountain, in the Montana Hills, it was not because they
were beaten, but because, as Joseph says, " I could not bear to
see my wounded men and women suffer any longer ; we had
lost enough already. * * * We could have escaped from Bear
Paw Mountain if we had left our wounded, old women and
children, behind. We were unwilling to do this. We had
never heard of a wounded Indian recovering while in the hands
of white men. * * * I believed General Miles, or I never would
have surrendered. I have heard that he has been censured for
making the promise to return us to Lapwai. He could not
have made any other terms with me at that time. I could
have held him in check until my friends came to my assistance,
and then neither of the generals nor their soldiers would ever
have left Bear Paw Mountain alive. On the fifth day I went
to General Miles and gave up my gun, and said, * From where
the sun now stands, I will fight no more.' My people needed
rest ; we wanted peace."

The terms of this surrender were shamefully violated. Joseph
and his band were taken first to Fort Leavenworth and then to
the Indian Territory. At Leavenworth they were placed in the
river bottom, with no water but the river water to drink.

" Many of my people sickened and died, and we buried them
in this strange land," says Joseph. " I cannot tell how much
my heart suffered for my people while at Leavenworth. The
Great Spirit Chief who rules above seemed to be looking some
other way, and did not see what was being done to my people."

Yet with a marvellous magnanimity, and a clear-headed sense
of justice of which few men would be capable under the cir-
cumstances, Joseph says: "I believe General Miles would have
kept his word if he could have done so. I do not blame him
for what we have suffered since the surrender. I do not know
who is to blame. We gave up all our horses, over eleven hun-
dred, and all our saddles, over one hundred, and we have not
heard from them since. Somebody has got our horses."

THE NEZ PERCES. 133

This narrative of Chief Joseph's is profoundly touching; a
very Iliad of tragedy, of dignified and hopeless sorrow ; and it
stands supported by the official records of the Indian Bureau.

"After the arrival of Joseph and his hand in Indian Territo-
ry, the had effect of their location at Fort Leaven worth mani-
fested itself in the prostration by sickness at one time of two
hundred and sixty out of the four hundred and ten ; and ' with-
in a few months ' in the death of * more than one-quarter of the
entire number.' "*

"It will be borne in mind that Joseph has never made a
treaty with the United States, and that he has never surrendered
to the Government the lands he claimed to own in Idaho. * * *
Joseph and his followers have shown themselves to be brave
men and skilful soldiers, who, with one exception, have ob-
served the rules of civilized warfare. * * * These Indians were
encroached upon by white settlers, on soil they believed to be
their own, and when these encroachments became intolerable,
they were compelled in their own estimation to take up
arms."t

Chief Joseph and a remnant of his band are still in Indian
Territory, waiting anxiously the result of the movement now
being made by the Ponca chief, Standing Bear, and his friends
and legal- advisers, to obtain from the Supreme Court a decision
which will extend the protection of the civil law to every In-
dian in the country.

Of the remainder of the Nez Percys (those who are on the
Lapwai Reservation), the report of the Indian Bureau for 1879
is that they " support themselves entirely without subsistence
from the Government ; procure of their own accord, and at
their own expense, wagons, harness, and other farming imple-
ments beyond the amount furnished by the Government undei

* Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner for 18Y8, p. 83.
f Same Report, p. 84.

134 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

their treaty," and that " as many again as were taught were
turned away from school for lack of room."

The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions has contributed
during this year $1750 for missionary wort among them, and
the Indians themselves have raised $125.

Their reservation is thus described : " The majority of land
comprising the reservation is a vast rolling prairie, affording
luxuriant pasturage for thousands of their cattle and horses.
The Clearwater Eiver, flowing as it does directly through the
reserve, branching out in the North, Middle, and South Forks,
greatly benefits their locations that they have taken in the val-
leys lying between such river and the bluffs of the higher land,
forming in one instance — at Kaimaih — one of the most pictu-
resque locations to be found in the whole North-west. Situated
in a valley on either side of the South Fork, in length about
six miles, varying in width from one-half to two miles; in form
like a vast amphitheatre, surrounded on all sides by nearly per-
pendicular bluffs rising two thousand feet in height, it forms
one of the prettiest valleys one can imagine. A view from the
bluff reveals a living panorama, as one sees the vast fields of
waving grain surrounding well-built and tasty cottages adorned
with porches, and many of the conveniences found among in-
dustrious whites. The sight would lead a stranger, not knowing
of its inhabitance by Indians, to inquire what prosperous white
settlement was located here. It is by far the most advanced in
the ways of civilization and progress of any in the Territory,
if not on the coast."

How long will the white men of Idaho permit Indians to oc-
cupy so fair a domain as this? The small cloud, no larger
than a man's hand, already looms on their horizon. The clos-
ing paragraph of this (the last) report from the Nez Percys is :

" Some uneasiness is manifest about stories set afloat by ren-
egade whites, in relation to their treatment at the expiration of
their treaty next July, but I have talked the matter over, and

THE NE2 PEBCES. 136

they "will wait patiently to see the action on the part of the
Government. They are well civilized ; but one mistake on the
part of the Government at this time would destroy the effects
of the past thirty years' teachings. Give them time and atten-
tion ; they will astonish their most zealous friends in their
progress toward civilization."

136 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR

CHAPTER V.

THE SIOUX.

THE word Sioux is a contraction from the old French word
" Nadonessioux," or " Enemies," the name given by the French
traders to this most powerful and warlike of all the North-west-
ern tribes. They called themselves "Dakota," or "many in
one," because so many bands under different names were joined
together. At the time of Captain Carver's travels among the
North American Indians there were twelve known bands of
these " Nadouwessies." They entertained the captain most
hospitably for seven months during the winter of I766~"f ;
adopted him as one of their chiefs ; and when the time came
for him to depart, three hundred of them accompanied him
for a distance on his journey, and took leave with expres-
sions of friendship for him, and good-will toward the Great
Father, the English king, of whom he had told them. The
chiefs wished him to say to the king "how much we desire
that traders may be sent to abide among us with such things
as we need, that the hearts of our young men, our wives, and
children may be made glad. And may peace subsist between
us so long as the sun, the moon, the earth, and the waters shall
endure ;" and "acquaint the Great King how much the Nadou-
wessies wish to be counted among his good children."*

Nothing in all the history of the earliest intercourse between
the friendly tribes of North American Indians and the Euro-
peans coming among them is more pathetic than the accounts
of their simple hospitality, their unstinted invitations, and their

THE SIOUX. 1ST

guileless expressions of desire for a greater knowledge of the
white men's ways.

When that saintly old bigot, Father Hennepin, sailed up the
Illinois River, in 1680, carrying his "portable chapel," chalice,
and chasuble, and a few holy wafers " in a steel box, shut very
close," going to teach the savages " the knowledge of the Cap-
tain of Heaven and Earth, and to use fire-arms, and several
other things relating to their advantage," the Illinois were so
terrified that, although they were several thousand strong, they
took to flight "with horrid cries and bowlings." On being
reassured by signs and words of friendliness, they slowly re-
turned— some, however, not until three or four days had passed.
Then they listened to the good man's discourses with " great
attention ; afterward gave a great shout for joy," and " ex-
pressed a great gratitude ;" and, the missionaries being foot-
sore from long travel, the kindly creatures fell to rubbing their
legs and feet "with oil of bears, and grease of wild oxen,
which after much travel is an incomparable refreshment ; and
presented us some flesh to eat, putting the three first morsels
into our mouths with great ceremonies."

It was a pity that Father Hennepin had no more tangible
benefit than the doctrine of the "efficacy of the Sacraments" to
communicate to the hospitable Illinois in return for their heal-
ing ointments. Naturally they did not appreciate this, and he
proceeded on his way disheartened by their "brutish stupid-
ity," but consoling himself, however, with the thought of the
infants he had baptized. Hearing of the death of one of them,
he says he is "glad it had pleased God to take this little -Chris-
tian out of the world," and he attributed his own " preservation
amidst the greatest dangers" afterward to "the care he took
for its baptism." Those dangers were, indeed, by no means in-
considerable, as he and his party were taken prisoners by a
roaming party of these Indians, called in the Father's quaint

old book " Nadouwessians." He was forced to accompany

6*

138 A CENTURY OP DISHONOE.

them on their expeditions, and was in daily danger of being
murdered by the more riotous and hostile members of the
band. lie found these savages on the whole "good-natured
men, affable, civil, and obliging," and he was indebted for his
life to the good-will of one of the chiefs, who protected him
again and again at no inconsiderable danger to himself. The
only evidence of religion among the Nadouwessies which he
mentions is that they never began to smoke without first hold-
ing the pipe up to the sun, saying, " Smoke, sun 1" They also
offered to the sun the best part of every beast they killed, car-
rying it afterward to the cabin of their chief ; from which Fa-
ther Hennepin concluded that they had " a religious veneration
for the sun."

The diplomatic relations between the United States Govern-
ment and the Sioux began in the year 1815. In that year and
the year following we made sixteen " treaties " of peace and
friendship with different tribes of Indians — treaties demanding
no cessions of land beyond the original grants which had been
made by these tribes to the English, French, or Spanish govern-
ments, but confirming those to the United States ; promising
" perpetual peace," and declaring that " every injury or act of
hostility committed by one or other of the contracting parties
shall be mutually forgiven and forgot." Three of these treaties
were made with bands of the Sioux — one of them with " the
Sioux of the Leaf, the Sioux of the Broad Leaf, and the Sioux
who shoot in the Pine-tops."

In 1825 four more treaties were made with separate Sioux
bands. By one of those treaties — that of Prairie du Chien —
boundaries were defined between the Chippewas and the Sioux,
and it was hoped that their incessant feuds might be brought
to an end. This hostility had continued unabated from the
time of the earliest travellers in the country, and the Sioux had
been slowly but steadily driven south and west by the victo-
rious Chippewas. A treaty could not avail very much toward

THIS SIOUX. 139

keeping peace between such ancient enemies as these. Fight-
ing went on as before ; and white traders, being exposed to the
attacks of all war-parties, suffered almost more than the Indians
themselves. The Government consoled itself for this spectacle
of bloody war, which it was powerless to prevent, by the
thought that the Indians would " probably fight on until some
one or other of the tribes shall become too reduced and feeble
to carry on the war, when it will be lost as a separate power "
— an equivocal bit of philosophizing which was unequivocally
stated in these precise words in one of the annual reports of
the War Department.

In the third Article of the next treaty, also at Prairie du
Chien, in 1830, began the trouble which has been from that
day to this a source of never ending misunderstanding and of
many fierce outbreaks on the part of the Sioux. Four of the
bands by this article ceded and relinquished to the United
States " forever" a certain tract of country between the Missis-
sippi and the Des Moines River. In this, and in a still further
cession, two other bands of Sioux, who were not fully repre-
sented at the council, must join ; also, some four or five other
tribes. Landed and "undivided" estate, owned in common by
dozens of families, would be a very difficult thing to parcel out
and transfer among white men to-day, with the best that fair
intentions and legal skill combined could do ; how much more
so in those days of unsurveyed forests, unexplored rivers,
owned and occupied in common by dozens of bands of wild
and ignorant Indians, to be communicated with only by inter-
preters. Misconstructions and disputes about boundaries would
have been inevitable, even if there had been all possible fair-
mindedness and good-will on both sides ; but in this case there
was only unfairmindedness on one side, and unwillingness on
the other. All the early makers of treaties with the Indians
congratulated themselves and the United States on the getting
of acres of valuable land by the million for next to nothing,

140 A CENTUEY OF DISHONOR.

and, as years went on, openly lamented that " the Indians were
beginning to find out what lands were worth ;" while the In-
dians, anxious, alarmed, hostile at heart, seeing themselves hard-
er and harder pressed on all sides, driven "to provide other
sources for supplying their wants besides those of hunting,
which must soon entirely fail them,"* yielded mile after mile
with increasing sense of loss, which they were powerless to pre-
vent, and of resentment which it would have been worse than
impolitic for them to show.

The first annuities promised to the Sioux were promised by
this treaty — §3000 annually for ten years to the Yankton and
Santee bands; to the other four, $2000. The Yankton and
San tee bands were to pay out of their annuity $100 yearly to
the Otoes, because part of some land which was reserved for
the half-breeds of the tribe had originally belonged to the
Otoes. "A blacksmith, at the expense of the United States;
also, instruments for agricultural purposes ; and iron and steel
to the amount of $700 annually for ten years to some of the
bands, and to the amount of $400 to the others ; also, $3000 a
year ' for educational purposes,5 and $3000 in presents distrib-
uted at the time," were promised them.

It was soon after these treaties that the artist Gatlin made his
famous journey d among the North American Indians, and gave
to the world an invaluable contribution to their history, per-
petuating in his pictures the distinctive traits of their faces
and their dress, and leaving on record many pages of unassail-
able testimony as to their characteristics in their native state,
He spent several weeks among the Sioux, and says of them :
" There is no tribe on the continent of finer looking men, and
few tribes who are better and more comfortably clad and sup-
plied with the necessaries of life. * * * I have travelled several
years already among these people, and I have not had my seal f

* Treaty of Prairie du Chiea.

THE SIOUX. HI

taken, nor a blow struck me, nor Lad occasion to raise my
hand against an Indian ; nor has my property been stolen as
yet to my knowledge to the value of a shilling, and that in a
country where no man is punishable by law for the crime of
stealing. * * * That the Indians in their native state are drunk-
en, is false, for they are the only temperance people, literally
speaking, that ever I saw in my travels, or expect to see. If
the civilized world are startled at this, it is the fact that they
must battle with, not with me. These people manufacture no
spirituous liquor themselves, and know nothing of it until it
is brought into their country, and tendered to them by Chris-
tians.

"That these people are naked, is equally untrue, and as
easily disproved with the paintings I have made, and with
their beautiful costumes wnich I shall bring home, I shall be
able to establish the fact that many of these people dress not
only with clothes comfortable for any latitude, but that they
dress also with some considerable taste and elegance. * * * Nor
am I quite sure that they are entitled to the name of 'poor*
who live in a country of boundless green fields, with good
horses to ride ; where they are all joint tenants of the soil to-
gether; where the Great Spirit has supplied them with an
abundance of food to eat."

Catiin found six hundred families of the Sioux camped at
one time around Fort Pierre, at the mouth of the Teton River,
on the west bank of the Missouri. There were some twenty
bands, each with their chief, over whom was one superior chief,
called Ha-won-je-tah (the One Horn), whose portrait is one of
the finest in Catlin's book. This chief took his name, "One
Horn," from a little shell which he wore always on his neck
This shell had descended to him from his father, and he said
"he valued it more than anything which he possessed: afford-
ing a striking instance of the living affection which these
people often cherish for the dead, inasmuch as he chose to

142 A CEOTUBY OF DISHONOR.

carry this name through life in preference to many others and
more honorable ones he had a right to have taken from differ-
ent battles and exploits of his extraordinary life." He was the
fleetest man in the tribe; "could run down a buffalo, which he
had often done on his own legs, and drive his arrow to the
heart."

This chief came to his death, several years later, in a tragic
way. He had been in some way the accidental cause of the
death of his only son — a very fine youth — and so great was
the anguish of his mind at times that he became insane. In
one of these moods he mounted his favorite war-horse, with
his bow and arrows in his hand, and dashed off at full speed
upon the prairies, repeating the most solemn oath that he
would slay the first living thing that fell in his way, be it man
or beast, friend or foe. No one dared follow him, and after
he had been absent an hour or two his horse came back to the
village with two arrows in its body covered with blood. Fears
of the most serious kind were now entertained for the fate of
the chief, and a party of warriors immediately mounted their
horses and retraced the animal's tracks to the place of the
tragedy, where they found the body of their chief horribly
mangled and gored by a buffalo-bull, whose carcass was stretch-
ed by the side of him.

A close examination of the ground was then made by the
Indians, who ascertained by the tracks that their unfortunate
chief, under his unlucky resolve, had met a buffalo-bull in the
season when they are very stubborn, and unwilling to run from
any one, and had incensed the animal by shooting a number of
arrows into him, which tad brought him into furious combat
The chief had then dismounted and turned his horse loose, hav-
ing given it a couple of arrows from his bow, which sent it
home at full speed, and then had thrown away his bow and
quiver, encountering the infuriated animal with his knife alone,
and the desperate battle had resulted in the death of both.

THE SIOUX. 143

Many of the bones of the chief were broken, and his huge an-
tagonist lay dead by his side, weltering in blood from a hun-
dred wounds made by the chiefs long and two-edged knife.

Had the provisions of these first treaties been fairly and
promptly carried out, there would have been living to-day
among the citizens of Minnesota thousands of Sioux fami-
lies, good and prosperous farmers and mechanics, whose civ-
ilization would have dated back to the treaty of Prairie du
Chien.

In looking through the records of the expenditures of the
Indian Bureau for the six years following this treaty, we find
no mention of any specific provisions for the Sioux in the mat-
ter of education. The $3000 annually which the treaty prom-
ised should be spent " on account of the children of the said
tribes and bands," is set down as expended on the " Choctaw
Academy," which was in Kentucky. A very well endowed in-
stitution that must have been, if we may trust to the fiscal re-
ports of the Indian Bureau. In the year 1836 there were set
down as expended on this academy : On account of the Mi-
amis, $2000 ; the Pottawattomies, $5000 ; the Sacs, Foxes, and
others, $3000 ; the Choctaws, $10,000 ; the Creeks, east, $3000 ;
the Cherokees, west, $2000; the Florida Indians, $1000; the
Quapaws, $1000 ; the Chickasaws, $3000 ; the Creeks, $1000 :
being a total of $31,000.

There were in this year one hundred and fifty-six pupils at
the Choctaw Academy, sixteen of them being from the Sacs,
Foxes, Sioux, and others represented in the Treaty of Prairie
du Chien of 1830. For the education of these sixteen children,
therefore, these tribes paid $3000 a year. The Miamis paid
more in proportion, having but four youths at school, and
$2000 a year charged to them. The Pottawattomies, on a
treaty provision of $5000, educated twenty.

In 1836 Congress appropriated $2000 "for the purpose of
extinguishing the Indian title between the State of Missouri

144 A CEOTUBY OF DISHONOR.

and the Missouri River. The land owned here by the Indians
was a long, narrow belt of country, separated from the rest of
the Indian country by the Missouri Siver. The importance of
it to the State of Missouri was evident — an " obvious conven*
ience and necessity." The citizens of Missouri made represen-
tations to this effect ; and though the President is said to have
been " unwilling to assent, as it would be in disregard of the
guarantee given to the Indians in the Treaty of Prairie du
Chien, and might be considered by them as the first step in
• a series of efforts to obtain possession of their new country,"
he nevertheless consented that the question of such a cession
should be submitted to them. Accordingly, negotiations were
opened, and nearly all the Indians who had rights in these
lands, " seeing that from their local position they could never
be made available for Indian purposes," relinquished them.*

In 1837 the Government invited deputations of chiefs from
many of the principal tribes to come to Washington. It was
"believed to be important to exhibit" to them "the strength
of the nation they would have to contend with" if they vent-
ured to attack our borders, " and at the same time to impress
upon them the advantages which flow from civilization."
Among these chiefs came thirty chiefs and headmen of the
Sioux ; and, being duly " impressed," as was most natural, con-
cluded treaties by which they ceded to the United States " all
their land east of the Mississippi River, and all their islands in
the same." These chiefs all belonged to the Medawakanton
band, " community of the Mysterious Lakes."

The price of this cession was $300,000, to be invested for
them, and the interest upon this sum, at five per cent., to be
paid to them "annually forever;" $110,000 to be distributed
among the persons of mixed blood in the tribe; $90,000 to bo

* For this relinquishment the Government gave to the Lower Sioux pre&
cuts to the amount of $400, and to the upper bands $530 in goods.

THE SIOUX. 145

devoted to paying the just debts of the tribe ; §8230 to be ex-
pended annually for twenty years in stock, implements, on phy-
sicians, farmers, blacksmiths, etc. ; $10,000 worth of tools, cat-
tle, etc., to be given to them immediately, " to enable them to
break up and improve their lands ;" $5300 to be expended an-
nually for twenty years in food for them, " to be delivered at
the expense of the United States ;" $6000 worth of goods to
be given to them on their arrival at St. Louis.

In 1838 the Indian Bureau reports that all the stipulations
of this treaty have been complied with, " except those which
appropriate $8230 to be expended annually in the purchase of
medicines, agricultural implements, and stock ; and for the sup-
port of a physician, farmers, and blacksmiths," and " bind the
United States to supply these Sioux as soon as practicable with
agricultural implements, tools, cattle, and such other articles as
may be useful to them, to an amount not exceeding $10,000,
to enable them to break up and improve their lands." The
fulfilment or non-fulfilment of these stipulations has been left
to the discretion of the agent; and the agent writes that it
"must be obvious to any one that a general personal inter-
course" on his part "is impracticable," and that "his interviews
with many of the tribes must result from casualty and accident."
This was undoubtedly true ; but it did not, in all probability,
occur to the Indians that it was a good and sufficient reason
for their not receiving the $18,000 worth of goods promised.

Five thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine dollars were
expended the next year under this provision of the treaty, and
a few Indians, who "all labored with the ioe," raised their
own crops without assistance. Six thousand bushels of corn
in all were housed for the winter ; but the experiment of turn-
ing hunters into farmers in one year was thought not to be, on
the whole, an encouraging one. The " peculiar habits of indo-
lence, and total disregard and want of knowledge of the value
and uses of time and property," the agent says, " almost f orbW

146 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR

hope." A more reasonable view of the situation would have
seen in it very great hope. That out of five hundred warriors
a few score should have been already found willing to work
was most reassuring, and promised well for the future of the
tribe.

For the next ten years affairs went on badly with the Sioux ;
they were continually attacked by the Chippewas, Ottawas, and
others, and continually retaliated. The authorities took a sen-
sible view of this state of things, as being the easiest way of
securing the safety of the whites. " So long as they (the In-
dians) are at war with each other they will not feel a disposi-
tion to disturb the peace and safety of our exposed frontier set-
tlements," wrote Governor Dodge, in 1840.

Whiskey traders flocked faster and faster into the neighbor-
hood ; fur traders, also, found it much more for their interest
to trade with drunken Indians than with sober ones, and the
Sioux grew rapidly demoralized. Their annuities were in ar-
rears ; yet this almost seemed less a misfortune than a blessing,
since both money, goods, and provisions were so soon squan-
dered for whiskey.

In 1842 several of the bands were reduced to a state of semi-
starvation by the failure of corn crops, and also by the failure
of the Senate to ratify a treaty they had made with Governor
Doty in 1841.* Depending on the annuities promised in this
treaty, they had neglected to make their usual provisions for
the winter. Frosts, which came in June, and drought, which
followed in July, combined to ruin their crops. For several
years the water had been rapidly decreasing in all the lakes
and streams north-west of Traverse de Sioux: the musk-rat
ponds, from which the Indians used to derive considerable
revenue, had dried up, and the musk-rats had gone, nobody
knew where; the beaver, otter, and other furry creatures had

* Never ratified.

THE SIOUX. 147

been hunted down till they were hard to find ; the buffalo had
long since been driven to new fields, far distant. Many of the
Indians were too poor to own horses on which to hunt. They
were two hundred miles from the nearest place where corn
could be obtained, even if they had money to pay for it. Ex-
cept for some assistance from the Government, they would
have died by hundreds in the winter of this year.

In 1849 the "needs" of the white settlers on the east side
of the Mississippi made it imperative that the Sioux should be
again removed from their lands. " The desirable portions of
Minnesota east of the Mississippi were already so occupied by
a white population as to seem to render it absolutely necessary
to obtain without delay a cession from the Indians on the west
side of the river, for the accommodation of our citizens emi-
grating to that quarter, a large" portion of whom would prob-
ably be compelled to precipitate themselves on that side of the
Mississippi."

Commissioners were accordingly sent to treat with the In-
dians owning these desired lands. In the instructions given
to these commissioners there are some notable sentences:
"Though the proposed purchase is estimated to contain some
twenty millions of acres, and some of it no doubt of excellent
quality," there are " sound reasons why it is comparatively val-
ueless to the Indians, and a large price should not be paid for
it." Alive to the apparent absurdity of the statement that
lands which are " absolutely necessary " for white farmers are
"comparatively valueless" to Indians whom the Government
is theoretically making every effort to train into farmers, and
who have for the last ten years made appreciable progress in
that direction, the commissioner adds, "With respect to its be-
ing valuable to the United States, it is more so for the purpose
of making room for our emigrating citizens than for any other ;
and only a small part of it is now actually necessary for that
object. * * * The extent of the proposed cession should be no

148 A CEKTURY OP DISHONOR.

criterion of the amount that should be paid for it. On a full
consideration of the whole matter, it is the opinion of this of-
fice that from two to two and a half cents an acre would be an
ample equivalent for it." Some discretion is left to the com-
missioners as to giving more than this if the Indians are " not
satisfied ;" but any such increase of price must be " based on
such evidence and information as shall fully satisfy the Pres-
ident and Senate."*

Beading farther on in these instructions, we come at last to
the real secret of this apparent niggardliness on the part of the
Government. It is not selfishness at all ; it is the purest of
philanthropy. The Government has all along been suffering
in mind from two conflicting desires — " the desire to give these
Indians an equivalent for their possessions," and, on the other
hand, " the well-ascertained fact that no greater curse can be
inflicted on a tribe so little civilized as the Sioux than to have
large sums of money coming to them as annuities." * * * On
the whole, the commissioner says that we are called on, " as a
matter of humanity and duty toward this helpless race, to make
every exertion in our power not to place much money at their
discretion." The Government is beginning very well in this di-
rection, it must be admitted, when it proposes to pay for Mis-
sissippi Valley lands in Minnesota only two and a half cents per
acre. " Humanity and duty " allied could hardly do more at
one stroke than that.

"We cannot ascribe to the same philanthropy, however, the
withholding from 1837 to 1850 the $3000 a year which the
treaty of 1837 provided should be expended " annually " as the
President might direct, and which was not expended at all, be-
cause President after President directed that it should be ap-

* "Chrysostom was of opinion, and not without reason, that, in contracts,
as often as we strive earnestly to buy anything for less than it is worth,
or to have more than our just measure or weight, there was in that fact a
kind of theft."— GROTITJS on Contracts.

THB SIOUX. 149

plied to educational purposes ; and there being no evident and
easy way of expending it in that manner, it was allowed to
accumulate, until in 1850 it amounted, according to the report
of Governor Ramsey, of Minnesota, to $50,000. The governor
also thinks better than the United States Government does of
the country to be relinquished this year by the Sioux. He
says that it will be " settled with great rapidity, possessing as
it does from its situation considerable prospective commercial
as well as agricultural advantages." It was evidently very
cheap at two and a half cents an acre.

In this same code of instructions by the Indian Bureau there
is a record of another instance of the Government's disregard
of treaty stipulations. At the time of the treaty of Prairie du
Chien, in 18 50, the Sioux chiefs had requested that a certain
tract be set apart and bestowed upon the half-breeds of their
nation. This was provided for in the ninth Article of that
treaty ; but the Government ref used to give to the half-breeds
any title to this land, except " in the same manner as other In-
dian titles are held." It was agreed, however, that the Presi-
dent might " assign to any of said half-breeds, to be held by
him or them in fee-simple, any portion of said tract not exceed-
ing a section of six hundred and forty acres to an individual"
This tract of land was known as the " Half-breed Reservation
on Lake Tepin."

The half-breeds had made almost unintermitting efforts to
have these assignments made, but the Government had as con*
stantly refused to do it. The Indian Bureau now assigns two
reasons why this treaty stipulation was never fulfilled: 1st,
that " the half-breeds, or most of them, would be speculated
upon by designing persons, and cheated out of their reserva-
tions ;" 2d, that, " on account of the quality of the lands, some
would necessarily have much better reservations than others,
which would engender dissatisfaction and heart-burning among
themselves as well as against the United States." The Bureau

150 A CEOTTTRY OP DISHONOR.

felicitates itself that "the only title they now have to this
land, therefore, is that by which other Indians hold their lands,
viz., the occupant or usufruct right, and this they enjoy by the
permission of the United States." Such being the case, and
as the Government would probably never find it expedient and
advisable to make the assignment referred to, this tract, what-
ever may be the character of the land, must be and would con-
tinue comparatively worthless to them.

Nevertheless, it appears that in 1841 one of the three trea-
ties made with the Sioux, but not ratified, was with these very
half-breeds for this same "valueless" tract of 384,000 acres of
land ; that they were to be paid $200,000 for it, and also to be
paid for all the improvements they had made on it ; and that
the treaty commissioners are still instructed " to allow them for
it now whatever sum the commissioners deem it to be " fairly
worth ; " under no circumstances," however, " to exceed the
sum stipulated in 1841." Putting this all into plain English,
it simply means that in 1830 the Government promised to let
a band of men take out tracts of land in fee-simple, and settle
down like other men on their homesteads ; that for ten years
the men begged to do so, and were refused ; that at the end of
ten years, thinking there was no hope of anything better, they
agreed to sell the whole tract back to the Government for
$200,000 ; that this bargain, also, the Government did not ful-
fil (the treaties never being ratified), and nine years later was
found congratulating itself on the fact that, by reason of all
these unfulfilled agreements, the land was still " held only in the
same manner as other Indian titles are held " — i. e., not " held "
at all — only used on sufferance of the Government, and could be
taken possession of at any time at the Government's pleasure.
(This matter was supposed to be finally settled in 1854 by a
law of Congress; but in 1856 the thing appears to have been
still unsettled. A commission had been sent out to investigate
it, and the report was that "the subject has been one of some

THE SIOUX. 151

difficulty and intricacy; but the final report of the commis-
sioners has just been received, and steps will be taken at once
to cause the scrip to issue to the parties entitled thereto.")

A little farther on in this same notable document is a men-
tion of another tract, of which it is now " desirable to extin-
guish the title," This was set apart by the tenth Article of
that same old treaty for the half-breeds of the Oniahas, Otoes,
lowas, and Yankton and Santee Sioux. This contains about
143,000 acres, but is " supposed to be of much less value than
that on Lake Tepin :" much less value than " valueless ;" but
the " amount to be paid for it is left to the discretion " of the
commissioners.

At this time the bands of the Medewakanton Sioux were oc-
cupying a tract of over two hundred miles along the west shore
of the Mississippi, reaching also some twenty-five miles up the
St. Peter's. The Yanktons, Santees, and other bands lived high
up the St. Peter's, reaching over into the lands west of the Mis-
souri, out of reach of ordinary facilities of intercourse. These
bands were often in great distress for food, owing to the failure
of the buffalo. They never lost an occasion to send imploring
messages to the Great Father, urging him to help them. They
particularly ask for hoes, that they may plant corn. In his re-
port for 1850 the superintendent of the territory embracing
these Indians says : " The views of most of those who have
lived the longest among the Indians agree in one respect — that
is, that no great or beneficial change can take place in their
condition until the General Government has made them amena-
ble to local laws — laws which will punish the evil-disposed,
and secure the industrious in their property and individual
rights."

Superintendents, agents, commissioners, secretaries, all re-
iteratedly recommending this one simple and necessary step
toward civilization — the Indians themselves by hundreds im-
ploring for titles to their farms, or at least "hoes"— why did

152 A CENTURY OF DISHONOK.

tlic United States Government keep on aiul on in its obstinate
way, feeding the Indian in gross and reckless improvidence
with one hand, plundering him with the other, and holding
him steadily down at the level of his own barbarism 1 Nay,
forcing him below it by the newly added vices of gambling
and drunkenness, and yet all the while boasting of its desire to
enlighten, instruct, and civilize him. It is as inexplicable as it
is infamous : a phenomenal thing in the history of the world.

In the summer of 1851 the desired treaties were made, the
upper and lower bands of Sioux being treated with separately
at Traverse de Sioux and at Mendota. The upper bands were
soon disposed of, though "some few of them, having been
taught to read," had become impressed with the idea that their
country was of immense value, and at first demanded six mill-
ion dollars for the lands to be ceded. The treaty with the
lower bands — the Medawakantons and Wahpacootas — was "ex-
ceedingly difficult of attainment" on account of, firstly, "their
proximity to the flourishing settlements on the east side of the
Mississippi producing necessarily frequent contact with the
whites, whose ideas of the great value of the country had been
imparted to these Indians ; secondly, their great experience in
Indian diplomacy, being in the enjoyment already of liberal
annuities under former stipulations" — all these things ren-
dered them as " indifferent to the making of another treaty at
present as the whites on their borders were anxious that their
lands should he acquired." In consequence of this indomita-
ble common-sense on the part of the Indians the sessions of the
commissioners were tedious and long ; not until a month had
passed did they prevail on these Indians to sign away the cov-
eted landsr" the garden-spot of the Mississippi Valley," and they
were obliged to more than treble the number of cents per acre
which they had been instructed to pay. For thirty-five mill-
ions of acres of hind they agreed to pay nominally $3,075,000,
which would be between eight and nine cents an acre. But as

THE SIOUX. 153

$2,500,000 was to be held in trust, and only the interest at
five per cent, to be paid to the Indians, and this only for the
term of fifty years, at which time the principal was to revert
to the Government, it will be easily reckoned that the Indians
would receive, all told, only about six and one-quarter cents an
acre. And taking into account the great value of the relin-
quished lands, and the price the Government would undoubt-
edly obtain for them, it will be readily conceded that Govern-
or Ramsey was not too sanguine when he stated, in his re-
port to the Interior Department, that the " actual cost to the
Government of this magnificent purchase is only the sum paid
in hand" ($575,000).

The governor says that it was " by no means the purpose "
of the commission "to act other than justly and generously
toward the Indians ;" that " a continuation of the payment of
large sums of interest annually would do them no further
good" after fifty years had expired, and would be "inconsist-
ent with sound governmental policy." He says that the Da-
kota nation, although warlike, is "friendly to the whites,"
and that it may be reasonably expected that, " by a judicious
expenditure of the civilization and improvement funds provided
for in these treaties," they will soon take the lead " in agri-
culture and other industrial pursuits."

One of the provisions of this treaty forbade the introduction
of ardent spirits into the new reservation. This was put in in
accordance with the " earnest desire " of the chiefs, who request-
ed that " some stringent measures should be taken by the Gov-
ernment to exclude all kinds of liquors from their new home."

By this treaty the four great bands of Minnesota Sioux were
all to be " consolidated together on one reservation in the up-
per part of the Mississippi Valley." This region was thought to
be "sufficiently remote to guarantee" them against any press-
ure from the white population for many years to come. Farms
were to be opened for them, mills and schools to be established,

154 A CEOTUBY OP DISHONOR.

and dwelling-houses erected. They were to have now a chance
to own " that domestic country called home, with all the living
sympathies and all the future hopes and projects which people
it." From this time " a new era was to be dated in the his-
tory of the Dakotas : an era full of brilliant promise." The
tract of territory relinquished by them was " larger than the
State of New York, fertile and beautiful beyond description,"
far the best part of Minnesota. It is " so far diversified in natu-
ral advantages that its productive powers may be considered
almost inexhaustible. * * * Probably no tract on the surface of
the globe is equally well watered. * * * A large part is rich
arable land ; portions are of unsurpassed fertility, and eminent-
ly adapted to the production in incalculable quantities of the
cereal grains. The boundless plains present inexhaustible fields
of pasturage, and the river bottoms are richer than the banks
of the Nile. In the bowels of the earth there is every indica-
tion of extensive mineral fields."

It would seem that the assertion made only a few lines be-
fore this glowing paragraph — " to the Indians themselves the
broad regions which have been ceded are of inconsiderable
value" — could not be true. It would seem that for eight thou-
sand people, who, according to this same writer, " have outlived
in a great degree the means of subsistence of the hunter
state," and must very soon "resort to the pursuits of agri-
culture," nothing could have been more fortunate than to have
owned and occupied thirty-five millions of acres of just such
land as this.

They appear to be giving already some evidence of a dispo-
sition to turn this land to account. The reports from the dif-
ferent farms and schools show progress in farming industry
and also in study. The farming is carried on with difficulty,
because there are only a few carts and ploughs, which must 'be
used in turn by the different farmers, and therefore must come
to some quite too late to be of use, and there is much quarrel-

THE SIOUX. 155

ling among them owing to this trouble. Nevertheless, these
bands have raised over four thousand bushels of corn in the
year. There is also a great opposition to the schools, because
the Indians have been told that the accumulated fifty thousand
dollars which is due to them would be paid to them in cash if
it were not for the schools. Nevertheless, education is slowly
progressing ; in this year fifty copies of a little missionary pa-
per called The Dakota Friend were subscribed for in the one
mission station of Lac qui Parle, and sixty scholars were enrolled
at the school. The blacksmith at St. Peter's reports that he
has made during the year 2506 pieces of one sort and another
for the Indians, and repaired 1430 more. Evidently a com-
munity keeping blacksmiths so busy as this are by no means
wholly idle themselves.

It is worth while to dwell upon these seemingly trivial de-
tails at this point in the history of the Minnesota Sioux, be-
cause they are all significant to mark the point in civilization
they had already reached, and the disposition they had already
shown toward industry before they were obliged to submit to
their first great removal. Their condition at the end of two
years from the ratification of these treaties is curtly told in the
official reports of the Indian Bureau :

" The present situation of that portion of the Sioux Indians
parties to the treaties of July 23d and August 5th, 1851, is
peculiar, unfortunate, and to them must prove extremely inju-
rious. By these treaties they reluctantly parted with a very
large extent of valuable country, which it was of the greatest
importance to the Government to acquire. An insignificant
portion of it near its western boundary, not deemed necessary
or desirable for a white population for many years, if at all,
was agreed to be reserved and assigned to them for their future
residence. The Senate amended the treaties, striking out this
provision, allowing ten cents an acre in lieu of the reservations,
and requiring the President, with the assent of the Indians, if

156 A CENTTJET OF DISHONOR.

they agreed to the amendments, to assign them such tracts of
country, beyond the limits of that ceded, as might he satisfacto-
ry for their future home. To the amendments was appended
a proviso * that the President may, hy the consent of the In-
dians, vary the conditions aforesaid, if deemed expedient.'
The Indians were induced to agree to the amendments ; 4 con-
fiding in the justice, liberality, and humanity of the President
and the Congress of the United States, that such tracts of
country will be set apart for their future occupancy and home
as will be to them acceptable and satisfactory.' Thus, not
only was the assent of the Indians made necessary to a coun-
try being assigned to them without the limits of that ceded,
but, by the authority given to the President to vary the' condi-
tions of the amendments to the treaties, he was empowered,
with the consent of the Indians, to place them upon the desig-
nated reservations, or upon any other portion of the ceded ter-
ritory, 4 if deemed expedient.'

" To avoid collisions and difficulties between the Indians and
the white population which rapidly commenced pouring into
the ceded country, it became necessary that the former should
vacate at least a large portion of it without delay, while there
was neither the time nor the means to make the requisite
explorations to find a suitable location for them beyond the
limits of the cession.

" Under these pressing and embarrassing circumstances the
late President determined to permit them to remain five years
on the designated reservations, if they were willing to accept
this alternative. They assented, and many of them have been
already removed. However unavoidable this arrangement, it
is a most unfortunate one. The Indians are fully aware of its
temporary character, and of the uncertainty as to their future
position, and will consequently be disinclined and deterred
from any efforts to make themselves comfortable and improve
their condition. The inevitable result must be that, at the end

THE SIOUX. 157

of the time limited, they will be in a far worse condition than
now, and the efforts and expenditures of years to infuse into
them a spirit of improvement will all have been in vain.

" The large investments in mills, farms, mechanic shops, and
other improvements required by the treaties to be made for
their benefit, will be entirely wasted if the Indians are to re-
main on their reservations only during the prescribed five years.
At the very period when they would begin to reap the full
advantage of these beneficial provisions they would have to
remove. Another unfortunate feature of this arrangement, if
temporary, is that the Indians will have expended the consid-
erable sums set apart in the treaties for the expenses of their
removal to a permanent home, and for subsistence until they
could otherwise provide it, leaving nothing for these important
and necessary purposes in the event of another emigration.
In view of these facts and considerations, no time should be
lost in determining upon some final and permanent arrange-
ment in regard to them."

The Governor of Minnesota also writes at this time : " The
doubtful tenure by which this tribe hold their supposed reser-
vation is well understood by their chiefs and headmen, and is
beginning to give deep dissatisfaction, and throwing daily more
and more obstacles in the way of their removal. This reserva-
tion will not be wanted for white men for many years.

"There is not wood, or timber, or coal sufficient for the
purposes of civilization, except immediately on the St. Peter's
and its tributaries. From near the vicinity of the new agency
there commences a vast prairie of more than one hundred
miles in extent, entirely destitute of timber, and I feel confi-
dent that we never shall be able to keep any very large num-
ber of them at their new agency, or near there.

" Already the fund set apart for the removal and subsistence
the first year of the Sissetons and Wah-pa-tons has been ex-
pended, and all their provisions eaten up. Seventeen thousand

158 A CENTUKY OF DISHO^OE.

dollars and upward have been expended by Governor Ramsey,
and one year in advance of the time fixed by the treaty for
their removal. This expenditure was made while he was get-
ting them to sign the Senate amendments to the treaty of
1851, which they were very reluctant to do, and which not
more than half the chiefs have signed. These Indians want
the Government to confirm this reservation to them. I would
recommend that this be done as the only means to satisfy
them, and humanity demands it."

Here is a picture of a helpless people ! Forced to give up
the " garden-spot of the State," and accept in its stead an " in-
significant tract, on the greater part of which there is not wood,
or timber, or coal sufficient for civilization ;" and then, before
the ink of this treaty is dry, told that even from this insignifi-
cant tract they must promise to move at the end of five years.
What words could characterize such a transaction between man
and man ? There is not a country, a people, a community in
which it would be even attempted ! Was it less base, or more,
being between a strong government and a feeble race ?

From the infamy of accomplishing this purpose the United
States was saved. Remonstrances, and still more the resistance
of the Indians, prevailed, and in 1854 we find the poor creat-
ures expressing " much satisfaction '* that the President has de-
creed that they are to remain permanently on their " insignifi-
cant tract"

The Upper Missouri Sioux are still suffering and destitute ;
a few of them cultivating little patches of ground, depending
chiefly on the chase, and on roots and wild berries ; when these
resources fail there is nothing left for them but to starve, or to
commit depredations on white settlers. Some of the bands,
nevertheless, have scrupulously observed the stipulations of the
Fort Laramie treaty in 1851, show a "strong desire for im-
provement," and are on the most friendly terms with the
whites. These peaceable and friendly bauds are much dis-

THE SIOUX. 159

tressed, as well they may be, at the reckless course pursued by
others of their tribe. They welcome the presence of the sol-
diers sent to chastise the offenders, and gladly render all the
service to them they can, even against their relatives and
friends.

In 1855 it is stated that "various causes have combined to
prevent the Minnesota Sioux from deriving, heretofore, much
substantial benefit from the very liberal provisions of the trea-
ties of 1851. Until after the reservations were permanently
assured to the Indians (1854) it would hare been highly im-
proper to have made the expenditures for permanent improve-
ments, and since then the affairs of the agency have not been
free from confusion."

" Large sums of money have been expended for these Sioux,
but they have been indolent, extravagant, intemperate, and have
wasted their means without improving, or seeming to desire to
improve their condition."

Both these statements are made in grave good faith ; cer-
tainly without any consciousness of their bearing on each other.
It is not stated, however, what specific means the Sioux could
have employed " to improve their condition," had they " de-
sired " to do so.

The summer of 1857 was one which will long be remem-
bered by the citizens of Minnesota. It was opened by ter-
rible massacres, which were all the work of a strolling outcast
band of Sioux, not more than fifteen in number. They had
been driven out of their tribe some sixteen years previous, and
had been ever since then leading a wandering and marauding
life. The beginning of the trouble was a trivial difficulty be-
tween one of the white settlers on Rock River and an Indian.
The settler's dog bit the Indian, and the Indian shot the dog.
For this the white settlers beat the Indian severely, and then
went to the camp and by force took away all the guns of the
band. This was at a season of the year when to be without

160 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

guns meant simply to be without food, and the Indians were
reduced at once to a condition of great suffering. By some
means they either repossessed themselves of their guns or pro-
cured others, and, attacking the settlement, killed all the in-
habitants except four women, whom they canicd away with
them, and treated with the utmost barbarity. The inevitable
results of such horrors followed. The thousands of peaceable
Indians in Minnesota, who did not even know of this outrage,
were all held in one common terror and hatred by the general
public ; only the very great firmness and discretion of the mili-
tary officers sent to deal with the outbreak saved Minnesota
from a general uprising and attack from all the Sioux bands,
who were already in a state of smouldering discontent by rea-
son of the non-payment of their annuities. However, they
obeyed the demands of the Government that they themselves
should pursue this offending band, and either capture or exter-
minate it. They killed four, and took three prisoners, and
then returned " much jaded and worn," and said they could do
no more without the help of United States soldiers ; and that
they thought they had now done enough to show their loyalty,
and to deserve the payment of their annuities. One of the
chiefs said : " The man who killed white people did not belong
to us, and we did not expect to be called to account for the
people of another band. We have always tried to do as our
Great Father tells us." Another said : " I am going to speak
of the treaty. For fifty years we were to be paid $50,000 per
annum. "We were also promised $300,000 that we have not
seen. I wish to say to my Great Father we were promised
these things, but have not seen them yet. Why does not the
Great Father do as he promised ?"

These hostilities were speedily brought to an end, yet the
situation was by no means reassuring for the Indians. But
one sentiment seemed to inspire the whole white population,
and this was the desire to exterminate the entire Indian race.

THE SIOUX. 161

"For the present," writes the superintendent, "it is equally
important to protect the Indians from tlie whites as the/ whites
from the Indians ;" and this in spite of the fact that all the
leading bands of the treaty Sioux had contributed warriors to
go in pursuit of the murderers, had killed or captured all they
could find, and stood ready to go again after the remaining
eight, if the United States troops would go also and assist them.
Spite of the exertions of one of the chiefs of the Lower Sioux,
"Little Crow," who, the superintendent says, labored with him
" night and day in organizing the party, riding continually be-
tween the lower and upper agencies," so that they " scarcely
slept " till the war-party had set out on the track of the mur-
derers ; spite of the fact that the whole body of the Sioux, with-
out exception, " received the inteDigence with as much indigna-
tion and disapprobation as the whites themselves, and did their
best to stand clear of any suspicion of or connection with the
affair — Spite of all this, they were in continual danger of being
shot at sight by the terrified and unreasoning settlers. One
band, under the chief Sleepy Eyes, were returning to their
homes from a hunt ; and while they were " wondering what
the panic among the whites meant" (they having heard noth-
ing of the massacre), were fired into by some of the militia
volunteers.

The next day a white settler was found killed near that spot
— presumably by some member of Sleepy Eyes' band. This
excitement slowly abated, and for the next four years a steady
improvement was visible in the Minnesota Sioux. Hundreds
of them threw aside the blanket — the distinctive badge of their
wild state ; schools were well attended, and farms were well
tilled. That there was great hostility to this civilization, on
the part of the majority of the tribe, cannot be denied; but
that was only natural — the inevitable protest of a high-spirited
and proud race against abandoning all its race distinctions.
When we see the men of Lorraine, or of Montenegro, ready to

162- A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

die for the sake merely of being called by the name of one
power rather than by that of another, we find it heroic, and
give them our sympathies ; but when the North American In-
dian is ready to die rather than wear the clothes and follow
the ways of the white man, we feel for him only unqualified
contempt, and see in his instinct nothing more than a barba-
rian's incapacity to appreciate civilization. Is this just?

In 1861 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, visiting these
Sioux, reports : " I was much surprised to find so many of the
Sioux Indians wearing the garb of civilization, many of them
living in frame or brick houses, some of them with stables or
out-houses, and their fields indicating considerable knowledge
of agriculture." Their condition, he says, affords " abundant
evidence of what may be accomplished among the Sioux In-
dians by steadily adhering to a uniform, undeviating policy.

" The number that live by agricultural pursuits is yet small
compared with the whole ; but their condition is so much better
than that of the wild Indian, that they, too, are becoming con-
vinced that it is the better way to live ; and many are coming
in, asking to have their hair cut, and for a suit of clothes, and
to be located on a piece of land where they can build a house
and fence in their fields."

Many more of them would have entered on the agricultural
life had the Government provided ways and means for them to
do so. In this same report is a mention of one settlement of
two thousand Indians at Big Stone Lake, who "have been
hitherto almost entirely neglected. These people complain
that they have lived upon promises for the last ten years, and
are really of opinion that white men never perform what they
promise. Many of them would go to work if they had any
reasonable encouragement."

The annuities are still in arrears. Every branch of the indus-
tries and improvements attempted suffers for want of the prom-
ised funds, and from delays in payments expected. The worst

THE SIOUX. 16S

result, however, of these delays in the fulfilment of treaty stip<
ulations was the effect on the Indians. A sense of wrong in
the past and distrust for the future was ever deepening in their
minds, and preparing them to be suddenly thrown by any small
provocation into an antagonism and hostility grossly dispropor-
tionate to the apparent cause. This was the condition of the
Minnesota Sioux in the summer of 1862.*

The record of the massacres of that summer is scarcely equal-
led in the history of Indian wars. Early in August some bands
of the Upper Sioux, who had been waiting at their agency near-
ly two months for their annuity payments, and had been suffer-
ing greatly for food during that time — so much so that " they
dug up roots to appease their hunger, and when corn was turned
out to them they devoured it uncooked, like wild animals" — be-
came desperate, broke into the Government warehouse, and took
some of the provisions stored there. This was the real begin-
ning of the outbreak, although the first massacre was not till
the 13th, When that began, the friendly Indians were power-
less to resist — in fact, they were threatened with their lives if
they did not join. Nevertheless, some of them rescued whole
families, and carried them to places of safety ; others sheltered
and fed women and children in their own lodges; many fled,
leaving all their possessions behind — as much victims of the out-
break as the Minnesota people themselves. For three days the
hostile bands, continually re-enforced, went from settlement to
settlement, killing and plundering. A belt of country nearly
two hundred-miles in length and about fifty in width was en-
tirely abandoned by the population, who flocked in panic to
the towns and forts. Nearly a thousand were killed — men,
women, and children — and nameless outrages were committed
on many. Millions of dollars' worth of property were de-
stroyed. The outbreak was quickly quelled by military forces

* See Appendix, Art. VL

164 .A CENTURY OP DISHOSTOE.

and a large number of Indians captured. Many voluntarily
surrendered, bringing with them over two hundred whites that
they had taken prisoners. A military commission tried these
Indians, and sentenced over three hundred to be hung. All but
thirty-nine were reprieved and put into prison. The remainder
were moved to Dakota, to a barren desert, where for three years
they endured sufferings far worse than death. The remainder
escaped to the Upper Missouri region or to Canada.*

Minnesota, at a terrible cost to herself and to the United
States Government, was at last free from the presence of
Indians within her borders — Indians who were her enemies
only because they had been treated with injustice and bad
faith.

During this time the bands of Sioux in the Upper Missouri
region had been more or less hostile, and military force in con-
tinual requisition to subdue them. Ee-enforced by the Minne-
sota refugees, they became more hostile still, and in the sum-
mer of 1863 were in almost incessant conflict. In 1864 the
Governor of Dakota Territory writes to the Department that
the war is spreading into Nebraska and Kansas, and that if
provision is not made for the loyal treaty Indians in that re-
gion before long, they also will join the hostiles. One band of
the Sioux — the Yanktons — has been persistently loyal, and ren-
dered great service through all the troubles. Fifty of these
Yankton Sioux had been organized by General Sibley into a
company of scouts, and had proved " more effective than twice
the number of white soldiers." The only cost to the Govern-
ment " of this service on the part of the Yanktons had been
fifty suits of condemned artillery uniforms, arms, and rations
in part to the scouts themselves."

In 1865 the Government, having spent about $40,000,000
on these campaigns, began to cast about for cheaper, if not

* All the Winnebagoes were removed from Minnesota at the same time.

THE SIOUX. 105

more humane methods, and, partly at the instance of the Gov-
ernor of Dakota, who knew very well that the Indians desired
peace, sent out a commission to treat with them. There \vere
now, all told, some 14,000 Sioux in this region, nearly 2000
being the refugees from. Minnesota.

The report of this commission is full of significant state-
ments. There seems to be no doubt that the great majority of
the Indians are anxious for peace ; but they are afraid to meet
the agents of the Government, lest they be in some way be-
trayed. Such bands as are represented, however, gladly assent
to a treaty of peace and good-will. The commissioners speak
with great feeling of the condition of the loyal Yanktons. "No
improvements have been made on their lands, and the commis-
sioners were obliged to issue provisions to them to keep them
from starving. * * * No crops met the eye, nor is there the
semblance of a school-house."

Yet by Article four of the treaty with the Yankton Sioux
the United States Government had agreed to expend $10,000
in erecting a suitable building or buildings, and to establish
and maintain one or more" normal labor schools; and it is to
be read in the United States Statutes at Large that in each of
the years 1860, 1861, 1862, and 1863, Congress appropriated
$65,000, as per treaty, for the benefit of the Yankton Sioux.

"With the exception of a few miserable huts, a saw-mill,
and a small amount of land enclosed, there are few vestiges of
improvement. * * * They are reduced to the necessity of hunt-
ing for a living, and, unless soon reassured and encouraged,
they will be driven to despair, and the great discontent existing
among them will culminate in another formidable Indian
war."

Nine treaties were concluded by this commission with as
many different bands of Sioux, the Indians pledging them-
selves to abstain from all hostilities with each other and with
the whites, and the Government agreeing to pay to the Indians

166 A CENTURY OF DISHONOK,

fifteen dollars a head per annum, and to all who will settle
down to farming twenty-five dollars a head.

In the winter follo\ving these treaties all these Indians faith-
fully kept their promises, in spite of terrible sufferings from
cold and from lack of food. Some of them were at the old
Crow Creek Reservation in Dakota, where they were " kept
from absolute starvation only by the issue to them of such
scanty supplies as could be spared from the stores at Fort
Sully, and from the agency." It is much to the credit of these
Indians that, in spite of their manifold sufferings, scarcely a
case of stealing occurred among them, they being determined
to keep their faith to the Government

" They will run like chickens to gather the offal from the
slop buckets that are carried from the garrison kitchens ; while
they pass a pile of corn and hundreds of loose cattle without
touching a thing, except when told they may gather up the
grains of corn from the ground where the rats in their depre-
dations have let it fall from the sacks," says the report of one
of the commissioners.

In the summer of 1865 still further treaties were concluded
with the Indians of the plains, and all the Sioux, with the ex-
ception of those in the British possessions, were now pledged
to peace. This summer also saw the first recognition on the part
of the Government of its flagrant injustice toward the friendly
Minnesota Sioux who were moved to Crow Creek, Dakota, at
the time of the massacre. There were nearly one thousand of
these — mostly old men, women, and children — many of them
the widows and children of those who had been hung or were
in prison at Davenport. For three years they had been " quiet
and patient in their sufferings."

The two hundred prisoners in Davenport had also shown
"an excellent disposition and entire submission," although
many of them were known and proved to have been " abso-
lutely guiltless of any acts of hostility ; and not only this, but

THE SIOUX. 167

deserving of reward for the rescue of \vliite captives." Cer-
tificates, petitions, and letters showing these facts wore for-
warded from Iowa to the Department, but the commissioner
says, in his report for 1866, that " they have been mislaid in their
passage through the various departments, and cannot be found T'

There was still another class of these Indians deserving of
help from the Government — some two hundred and fifty
friendly farmer Indians, who were living in 1862 quietly on
their farms, "who have acted as scouts for the Government;
who never committed any acts of hostility, nor fled with those
who did commit them," and have still remained friendly
through these four years, " while compelled to a vagabond life
by the indiscriminate confiscation of all their land and prop-
erty."

"The crops belonging to these farmer Indians were valued
at $125,000, and they had large herds of stock of all kinds,
fine farms, and improvements. The United States troops en-
gaged in suppressing the massacre, also the prisoners taken by
them — in all, some 3500 men — lived for fifty days on this
property."

Strong efforts were made by Bishop Whipple and others to
obtain from the Government some aid for these friendly In-
dians, and the sum of $7500 was appropriated by Congress
for that purpose. The letter of Bishop "Whipple, who was
requested to report on the division of this sum, is so eloquent
a summing up of the case of these Indians, that it ought to
be placed on permanent record in the history of our country.
He writes :

" There is positive injustice in the appropriation of so mis-
erable a pittance. * * * A much larger sum would not pay the
amount which we honestly owe these men. The Government
was the trustee of the Upper and Lower Sioux. It held several
millions of dollars for their benefit — the joint property of the
tribes. These friendly Sioux had abandoned their wild life,

168 A CENTUEY OP DISHONOR.

and adopted the dress, habits, and customs of civilization ; and
in doing this, which placed them in open opposition to the
traditions of their tribes, they were pledged the protection of
the Government. By a mistaken policy, by positive neglect to
provide a government, by tbe perversion of funds due them for
the sale of one-half their reservations, by withholding their
annuities until two months after they were due (which was
caused by the use of a part of these funds for claims), by per-
mitting other causes of dissatisfaction to go on unheeded, we
provoked the hostility of the wild Indians, and it went on
until it ripened in massacre. These farmer Indians had been
pledged a patent for their farms : unless we violated our solemn
pledge, these lands were theirs by a title as valid as any title
could be. They had large crops, sufficient to support General
Sibley's army for a number of weeks. They lost all they had
— crops, stock, clothing, furniture. In addition to this, they
were deprived of their share in these annuities, and for four
years have lived in very great suffering. You can judge
whether $5000 shall be deemed a just reward* for the brav-
ery an4 fidelity of men who, at the risk of their own lives,
were instrumental in saving white captives, and maintained
their friendship to the whites.

" I submit to you, sir, and through you hope to reach all
who fear God and love justice, whether the very least we can
do for all the friendly Sioux is not to fulfil the pledges we
made years ago, and give to each of them a patent of eighty
acres of land, build them a house, and provide them cattle,
seeds, and implements of husbandry ?"

In 1866 all these Sioux were removed, and, in spite of the

* Two thousand five hundred of the seven thousand five hundred dol-
lars had been especially set aside by the Government (unjust in its rewards
as in its punishments) for Chief Other Day, who was really less deserv'
ing than many others.

THE SIOUX. 169

protestations of tlie Nebraska citizens, settled on reservations
on the Niobrara River, in Northern Nebraska. It soon becama
evident that this place was undesirable for a reservation, both
on account of its previous occupancy by the whites aud scarci-
ty of timber.

In the fall they removed again to the mouth of Bazile Creek.
Temporary buildings were again erected, and here they spent
the winters of 1866 and 1867. In February they were cheer-
ed by the invitation sent their chiefs and headmen to visit
Washington. They went, feeling sure that they should get a
home for themselves and people. " All they got was a prom-
ise that a commission should be sent out to visit them the
next year." They were told, however, to move to Breckenridge,
on the west bank of the Missouri, plant crops there, and were
promised that, if they liked the place, they should have it " se-
cured to them as a permanent home.*' Accordingly, the " agency
buildings " were once more removed, and two hundred acres of
land were planted. Before the crops were harvested the com-
mission arrived, and urged the Indians to move farther up
the Missouri. The Indians being averse to this, however, they
were allowed to remain, and told that if they would cultivate
the soil like white men — take lands in severalty — the Govern-
ment would assist them. The Indians gladly consented to this,
and signed a treaty to that effect. But in 1868 their agent
writes : " That treaty is not yet ratified, and, instead of assist-
ance to open farms, their appropriation has been cut down one
half. After paying for supplies purchased on credit last year,
it is entirely insufficient for clothing and subsistence, and
leaves nothing for opening farms, procuring cattle," etc. These
Indians, only five years previous, had been living on good
farms, and had $125,000 worth of stock, implements, etc. No
wonder their agent writes : " Leave them without a home a few
years longer, and you offer strong inducements for them to be
come idle and worthless."

170 A CENTUET OF DISHONOE.

It is an intricate and perplexing task to attempt now to
follow the history of the different bands of the Sioux tribe
through all their changes of location and affiliation — some in
Dakota, some in Nebraska, and some on the Upper Arkansas
•with the hostile Cheyennes and Arapahoes — signing treaties one
summer, and on the war-path the next — promised a home in
spring, and ordered off it before harvest — all the time more
and more hemmed in by white settlers, and more and more
driven out of their buffalo ranges by emigrations — liable at any
time to have bodies of United States soldiers swoop down on
them and punish whole bands for depredations committed by
a handful of men, perhaps of a totally distinct band — the won-
der is not that some of them were hostile and vindictive, but
that any of them remained peaceable and friendly. Bandied
about from civil authorities to military — the War Department
recommending " that all Indians not on fixed reservations be
considered at war," and proceeded against accordingly, and the
Interior Department neglecting to provide them with "fixed
reservations," or to define or enforce the boundaries of even
their temporary reservations — tricked, cheated on all sides —
starving half the time — there is not a tribe of all the perse-
cuted tribes of Indians that has a more piteous record than the
Sioux. Nevertheless, we find many of the bands, in 1870, ad-
vancing in civilization. In the Yankton band nearly one hun-
dred children arc in school, and eight hundred acres of land
are under cultivation. The Lower Yanktons arc peaceful and
quiet, although they are near the Brules, who are always rov-
ing and hostile. The Sissctons and Wahpetons, who were by
a treaty of 1867 placed on reservations in Dakota, arc "indus-
trious, and fast advancing in agricultural pursuits." Four
schools are in operation among them. The Yanktons arc
" anxious to farm, and state that the Government has promised
to assist and teach them to farm ; that they are and have been
ready for some time, but as yet the agent has not received any

THE SIOUX. 171

instructions or funds to permit of tlieir accomplishing their
desire."

Two events, important in the history of the Sioux tribe, hap-
pened in 1869 and 1870. One was the visit of a delegation of
chiefs and headmen from several of the bands, under the loader-
ship of the chief Red Cloud, to Washington, Philadelphia, and
New York. They had thus an opportunity of relating all their
grievances, and of receiving the Government's declarations of
good intentions toward them. Eed Cloud, after his return home,
became an ardent and determined advocate of peace and loyal-
ty. The other was the withdrawal of a portion of the San tee
Sioux from their band, for the purpose of taking up farms un-
der the Homestead Act, and becoming independent citizens.
The story of this experiment, and the manner in which it was
met by the United States Government, is best told in the words
of Dr. Williamson, a missionary, who had lived thirty-five years
among them, and who pleaded thus warmly for them in a letter
addressed to the Department in the summer of 1870 : "Several
considerations have influenced the Dakotas in going to the Big
Sioux River: 1st. The -soil and climate are more similar to
that to which they have been accustomed in Minnesota, their
former home, than is that of their reservation on the Missouri ;
2d. Feeling that they were men capable of sustaining them-
selves if a fair opportunity is afforded them, they felt that it
was degrading to live as sinecures and pensioners dependent
on Government for food and clothing ; 3d. And chiefly a de-
sire to make homes for their families where they could be sub-
jected to, and protected by, the laws of the United States, the
same as all other men are. This they thought could not be the
case on their reservation.

"These Sioux were parties to the treaties made in 1851, by
which they and other bands ceded to the United States all the
best settled parts of Minnesota west of the Mississippi for less
than one-hundredth part of its present value, and much less

172 A CENTUEY OS1 DISHOtfOB.

than the lands were worth to them as hunting-grounds. And
while as hunters they needed no protection of the law, they
knew that as agriculturists they could not live without it ; and
they positively refused to sell their hunting-grounds till the
Commissioner of the United States promised that they should
he protected in their persons and property the same as whito
men. Government never accorded to them this protection,
which, in the view of the Indians, was a very important consid-
eration in selling the lands. This neglect on the part of tho
Government led to yearly complaints, and the massacres of
1862. * * * These Sioux were most of them previous to the
war living in comfortable homes, with well - cultivated farms
and teams," and were receiving by annuity provisions, either in
money or the equivalent, about $50 a head annually, from in-
terest on their money invested in the bonds of the Govern-
ment. These Indians, in taking up their new homesteads, wcro
required by the Department to renounce, on oath, all claims on
the United States for annuities. Without doubt, citizenship
of the United States, the protection of our laws, is worth a
great sum ; but is it wise or right in our Government to re-
quire these natives of the country to purchase, at a price of sev-
eral thousands of dollars, that which is given without money or
price to every immigrant from Asia, Europe, or Africa that
asks for it ?

"Besides their annuities, there is due them from the Govern
ment the proceeds of the sale of their old reservation on the
Minnesota River, which is more than forty miles long and ten
wide ; which, after paying expenses of survey and sale, arc, ac-
cording to a law of the United States, to be expended in as-
sisting them to make homes elsewhere ; and as these lands were
valued at $1 25 an acre and upward, and arc rapidly selling,
the portion which will be due each of the Indians cannot be
less than $200 or $300 — or $1000 for each family. The oatli
required of them is supposed to bar them from any claim to

THE SIOUX. 173

tliis also. Now, I cannot see how this decision of the Indian
Department is consistent either with justice or good policy, and
it is certainly inconsistent with both the spirit and letter of
Articles six and ten of a treaty between the United States of
America and different bands of Sioux Indians, concluded in
1868, and ratified and proclaimed February, 1869. * * * "What
I ask for them is that our Government restore to them a part
of what we took from them, and give them the same chance to
live and thrive which we give to all the other inhabitants of
our country, whether white or black. * * * That some aid is
very necessary must be obvious to you, who know how difficult
it is for even white men, trained to work, and with several hun-
dred dollars in property, to open a new farm in this Western
wilderness. Their number is probably greater than you are
aware of. When I administered the Lord's Supper there on
the first Sabbath of this month, there were present seventy-
seven communicants of our church, besides quite a number of
other persons. * * * It is owing to the Santee Sioux — partly to
those on the Big Sioux River, chiefly to those near Fort Wads-
worth — that in the last five years not a single white inhabitant
of Minnesota or Iowa has been murdered by the wild Indians,
while many have been cut off in every frontier State and Ter-
ritory south-west of the Missouri. So long as the Christian
Sioux can be kept on the frontier, the white settlements are
safe. * * * In conclusion, I wish again to call your attention to
the fact that these Indians on the Big Sioux purchase citizen-
ship at a very great sum, and to entreat you to dp all in your
power to secure for them that protection of person or property
for which they bargain, and without which nothing our Gov-
ernment can do will make them prosperous or happy."

No attention was paid to this appeal; and the next year
the indefatigable missionary sent a still stronger one, setting
forth that this colony now numbered fifty families; had been
under the instruction of the American Board of Commissioners

174 A CENTURY Otf DISHONOR.

for Foreign Missions for many years; had a church of one
hundred members; a native preacher, partly supported by
them; had built log-cabins on their 'claims, and planted farms,
" many of them digging up the ground with hoes and spades."

Dr. Williamson reiterates the treaty provisions under which he
claims that these Indians arc entitled to aid. The sixth Article
of the treaty of 1808 closes as follows: "Any Indian or In-
dians receiving a patent for land under the foregoing provis-
ions, shall thereby and henceforth become and be a citizen of the
United States, and be entitled to all the privileges and immu-
nities of such citizenship, and shall at the same time retain all
his rights and benefits accruing to Indians under this treaty."

This treaty goes on to provide most liberally for all Indians
adopting the civilized mode of life. Article eighth specially
provides for supplying them with seed and agricultural imple-
ments, and this is what they most of all need.

The encouragement held forth in this treaty was one great
motive in leading these people to break tribal influences, so
deleterious to improvement, and adopt our democratic civiliza-
tion. Is it not base tyranny to disappoint them ? They are
the first Sioux, if not the first Indians in the United States to
adopt the spirit and life of our American civilization. They
have of their own accord done just what the Government has
been for generations trying to get the Indians to do. And
now will the Government refuse this helping hand? To our
shame, it has for two years refused. And why? Because the
Indians said, " If we become civilized, it is necessary for us to
break up tribal relations, and settle down like white men."

In 1873 the Government at last yielded to this request,
and sent out oxen, wagons, ploughs, etc., enough to stock thir-
ty farms. In 1874, Dr. Williamson, having been appoints! ;i
special agent for them, reports their progress: "They rill live
in log-houses and wear citizens' dress. * * * One hundred and
nineteen can read their own language fluently. They all go tu

THE SIOUX. 175

church regularly. They have broken one hundred and sev«
enty-seven acres of new prairie. Twenty new houses have been
built. * * * They have cut and hauled two hundred cords of
wood, hauling some of it forty miles to market. * * * They have
done considerable freighting with their teams, going sometimes
a hundred miles away. They have earned thirty-five hundred
dollars, catching small furs. * * * One Indian has the contract
for carrying the mail through Flandreau, for which he receives
one thousand dollars a year. * * * It is but a few miles from
Flandreau to the far-famed pipe -stone quarry, and these Indi-
ans make many little sums by selling pipes, rings, ink-glasses,
etc., made of this beautiful red stone. * * * They are anxious
to be taught how to make baskets, mats, cloth ; and the young
men ask to be taught the blacksmith and carpenter trades."

This is a community that only five years before had pushed
out into an unbroken wilderness without a dollar of money,
without a plough, to open farms. " Without ploughs, they
had to dig the sod with their hoes, and at the same time make
their living by hunting. They suffered severe hardships, and
a number of their best men perished in snow-storms. Believ-
ing they were carrying out the wishes of the Great Father, as
expressed in the treaty of 1868, to which they were parties,
they were disappointed when for three years no notice was
taken of them." There is something pathetic in the gratitude
they are said now to feel for the niggardly gift of a few oxen,
wagons, and ploughs. They have apparently given over all
hope of ever obtaining any of the money due them on account
of their lands sold in Minnesota. No further allusion is made
to it by Dr. Williamson.

From the Yankton Sioux this year comes a remarkable re-
port : " We have no jail, no law except the treaty and the
agent's word, yet we have no quarrels, no fighting, and, with
one or two exceptions, not a single case of drunkenness during
the year. This I consider remarkable, when we take into con-

176 A CENTUBY OF DISHONOR.

sideration the fact that the reservation is surrounded by ranches
where liquors of all kinds can be obtained." Is there another
village of two thousand inhabitants in the United States of
vhich this can be said ?

In this yeai a commission was sent to treat with some of
the wilder bands of Sioux for the relinquishuient of their right
to hunt and roam over a large part of their unn ceded territory
in Kansas and Nebraska. Some of the chiefs consented. Red
Cloud's band refused at first ; " but on being told that the right
would soon be taken from them," after a delay of two days
they " agreed to accept," merely stipulating that their share of
the twenty-five thousand dollars promised should be paid in
horses and guns. They insisted, however, on this proviso :
"That we do not surrender any right of occupation of the
country situated in Nebraska north of the divide, which is
south of and near to the Niobrara River and west of the one
hundredth meridian."

It was a significant fact that, when these Sioux gave tip this
hunting privilege, " they requested that nearly all the $>25,OOG
they received in compensation for this rclinquishmcnt should
be expended in cows, horses, harness, and wagons," says the '
Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1875.

There are still some thousand or more of hostile Sioux roam-
ing about under the famous chief Sitting Bull — living by the
chase when they can, and by depredations when they must ;
occasionally, also, appearing at agencies, and drawing rations
among the other Indians unsuspected. The remainder of the
bands arc steadily working their way on toward civilization.
The Santees arc a Christian community ; they have their indus-
trial-schools, Sabbath-schools, and night-schools; they publish
a monthly paper in the Dakota tongue, which prints twelve
hundred copies. The Yanktons have learned to wc.ivo, and
have made cloth enough to give every Indian woman in the
tribe one good dress. The Flandrcau citizen Sioux Lave a

THE SIOUX. 177

Presbyterian church of one hundred and thirty-five members,
and pay half the salary of the native preacher. On the occa-
sion of an anniversary meeting of the Dakota missionaries
there, these people raised one hundred dollars to pay for their
entertainment. These three bands are far the most advanced,
but all the others are making steady progress.

In 1876 the news from the Sioux on the agencies is that,
owing to the failure of appropriations, the Indian Bureau- had
been unable to send the regular supplies, and the Indians, be-
ing in " almost a starving condition," had been induced, by the
" apparent purpose of the Government to abandon them to
starvation," to go north in large numbers, and join the hostile
camps of Sitting Bull This was in the spring j again in mid-
summer the same thing happened, and many of the Indians,
growing still more anxious and suspicious, left their agencies
to join in the war.

Congress would probably have paid little attention at this
time to the reading of this extract from " Kent's Commenta-
ries : " " Treaties of peace, when made by the competent power,
are obligatory on the whole nation. If the treaty requires the
payment of money to carry it into effect, and the money can-
not be raised but by an act of the legislature, the treaty is
morally obligatory upon the legislature to pass the law ; and
to repeal it would be a breach of the public faith."

A disturbed and unsettled condition of things prevailed
at all the Sioux agencies, consequent on this state of things.
Companies of troops were stationed at all of them to guard
against outbreaks. Owing to lack of funds, the Tanktons
were obliged to give up their weaving and basket-making.
At the Standing Kock Agency, after the Indians had planted
eight hundred and seventy-two dollars7 worth of seeds — of corn,
potatoes, and other vegetables — the grasshoppers came and de-
voured them. " Many of these Indians, with their whole fami-
lies, stood all day in their fields fighting these enemies, and in

8

178 A CENTUEY OF DISHONOR.

several places succeeded so far as to save a considerable part of
their crops." The Santees were made very anxious and. un-
liappy by fresh rumors of their probable removal, Public senti-
ment at the East, knowing no difference between different tribes
of Sioux, regarded it as maudlin sentimentalism to claim for the
Santees any more rights than for the hostiles that had murdered
General Ouster, One of the agents in Dakota writes :

" The recent troubles in the Indian country, and the existing
uncertainty as to the future intentions of the Government
toward the Indians, occasion considerable uneasiness among
them. * * * Eeports are circulated that no further assistance
will "be rendered by the Government, as the Great Council in
Washington refuses to furnish money unless the Indians are
turned over to the War Department. Every inducement is
held out to encourage secession from the agencies, and strength-
en the forces of the hostile camp. It is not surprising that, in
view of the non-arrival of supplies, and the recent order of the
War Department to arrest parties leaving and arriving, that
people less credulous than Indians would feel undecided and
uneasy. * * * It must be remembered that the whole Sioux
nation is related, and that there is hardly a man, woman, or
child in the hostile camp who has not blood relations at one or
the other of the agencies."

Contrast the condition into which all those friendly Indians
are suddenly plunged now, with their condition only two years
previous ; martial law now in force on all their reservations ;
themselves in danger of starvation, and constantly exposed to the
influence of emissaries from their friends and relations, urging
them to join in fighting this treacherous government that Lad
kept faith with nobody — neither with friend nor with foe ;
that inado no discriminations in its warfare between friends and
foos j burning villages occupied only by women and children ;
butchering hands of Indians living peacefully under protection
of its Hag, as at Sand Creek, in Colorado— no wonder thai

THE SIOUX. 179

one of the military commander's official reports says, "The
hostile body was largely re-enforced by accessions from the va-
rious agencies, where the malcontents were, doubtless, in many
cases, driven to desperation by starvation and the heartless
frauds perpetrated on them ; " and that the Interior Department
is obliged to confess that, " Such desertions were krgely due
to the uneasiness which the -Indians had long felt on account
of the infraction of treaty stipulations by the white invasion
of the Black Hills, seriously aggravated at the most critical pe-
riod by irregular and insufficient issues of rations, necessitated
by inadequate and delayed appropriations."

It was at this time that Sitting Bull made his famous reply :
" Tell them at Washington if they have one man who speaks
the truth to send him to me, and I will listen to what he Las
to say."

The story of the military campaign against these hostile
Sioux in 1876 and 1877 is to be read in the official records
of the War Department, so far as statistics can tell it. Another
history, which can never be read, is written in the hearts of
widowed women in the Sioux nation and in the nation of the
United States.

Before midsummer the Sioux war was over. The indomi-
table Sitting Bull had escaped to Canada— that sanctuary of
refuge for the Indian as weU as for the slave. Here he was
visited in the autumn by a commission from the United
States, empowered by the President to invite him with his
people to return, and be " assigned to agencies," and treated
"in as friendly a spirit as other Indians had been who had
surrendered." It was explained to him that every one of the
Indians who had surrendered had "been treated in the same
manner as those of your nation who, during all the past
troubles, remained peaceably at their agencies." As a great
part of those who had fled from these same agencies to join
Sitting Bull had done so because they were starving, and the

180 A CEffTTTBY Off DISHONOR.

Government knew this (had printed the record of the fact in
the reports of two of its' Departments), this was certainly a
strange phraseology of invitation for it to address to Sitting
Bull. His replies and those of his chiefs were full of scathing
sarcasm. Secure on British soil, they had for once safe free-
dom of speech as well as of action, and they gave the United
States Commissioners very conclusive reasons why they chose
to remain in Canada, where they could " trade with the traders
and make a living," and where their women had "time to
raise their children." *

The commissioners returned from their bootless errand, and
the Interior Department simply entered on its records the state-
ment that " Sitting Bull and his adherents are no longer con-
sidered wards of the Government." It also enters on the same
record the statement that " in the months of September and
October, 1876, the various Sioux agencies were visited by a
commission appointed under the Act of Congress, August 15th
of that year, to negotiate with the Sioux for an agreement to
surrender that portion of the Sioux Ecservation which included
the Black Hills, and certain hunting privileges outside that re-
serve, guaranteed by the treaty of 18G8; to grant a right of
way across their reserve ; and to provide for the removal of the
Red Cloud and Spotted Tail bands to new agencies on the Mis-
souri River. The commission were also authorized to take steps
to gain the consent of the Sioux to their removal to the Indian
Territory. * * * The commission were successful in all the ne-
gotiations with which they were charged, and the Indians niado
every concession that was desired by the Government, although
we were engaged at that very time in fighting their relatives
and friends." The only comment needed on this last para-
graph is to suggest that a proper list of oirulu for that page
should contain : " For ' although ' read ' because ! ' " " On bo-
half of the United States the agreement thus entered into pro-

* See Appendix. Art. V.

THE SIOUX. 181

vided for subsisting the Sioux on a stated ration until they
should become self-supporting ; for furnishing schools, and all
necessary aid and instruction in agriculture and the mechanical
arts, and for the allotment of lands in severalty."

In accordance with this act, a commission was sent to select
a location on the Missouri Eiver for the two new Sioux agen-
cies (the Eed Cloud and Spotted Tail).

" For the former the site chosen is the junction of Yellow
Medicine and Missouri rivers, and at that point agency build-
ings have just been erected," says the Eeport of the Indian
Bureau for 1877. "For the latter the old Ponca Reserve was
decided on, where the agency buildings, storehouses, one hun-
dred and fifty Indian houses, and five hundred acres of culti-
vated fields, left vacant by the Poncas, offer special advantages
for present quarters."

The commissioner says : " The removal of fourteen thousand
Sioux Indians at this season of the year, a distance of three
hundred miles from their old agencies in Nebraska to their
new quarters near the Missouri Eiver, is not a pleasant matter
to contemplate. Neither the present Secretary of the Interior
nor the present Commissioner of Indian Affairs is responsible
for the movement, but they have carried out the law faithfully
though reluctantly. The removal is being made in accord-
ance with the Act of August 15th, 1876. It is proper to say
here that I cannot but look on the necessity thus imposed by
law on the executive branch of the Government as an unfor-
tunate one, and the consequences ought to be remedied as
speedily as possible.

" Let us for a moment consider that the Spotted Tail Agency
was in 1871 on the west bank of the Missouri Eiver, where
the whites became exceedingly troublesome, and the river
afforded abundant facilities for the introduction of intoxicat-
ing liquors. In 1874 the Eed Cloud and Spotted Tail agen-
cies were removed to what a subsequent survey proved to be

182 A CEOTUBY OF DISHONOR.

the State of Nebraska — d;he former agency one hundred and
sixty-five miles from Cheyenne, and the latter one hundred and
eight miles from Sidney, the nearest points on the Union Pacific
Eailroad. Here the usual ill-fortune attending the removal
of these Indians was again exemplified in placing the agencies
on absolutely barren land, where there was no possibility of
cultivating the soil, no hope of their being enabled to become
self-supporting, and where they luive of necessity been kept in
the hopeless condition of paupers."

In the hope of placing these Indians upon arable land,
where they might become civilized and self-supporting, the
determination was hastily taken to remove them back to the
Missouri River. This step was taken without a proper exami-
nation of other points on their reservation, where it is stated
that " a sufficient quantity of excellent wheat lands can bo
found on either bank of the White River, and where there is
also timber sufficient in quantity and quality for all practical
purposes. *** The Indian chiefs, in their interview with the
President in September last, begged that they might not be
sent to the Missouri River, as whiskey-drinking and other
demoralization would be the consequence. This was the judg-
ment of the best men of the tribe ; but the necessity was one
that the President could not control. The provisions and
supplies for the ensuing winter had been placed, according to
law, on the Missouri, and, owing to the lateness of the season,
it was impossible to remove them to the old agencies. Accord-
ingly, the necessities of the case compelled the removal of
these Indians in the midst of the snows and storms of early
winter, which have already set in."

If there were absolutely no other record written of the man-
agement of Indian affairs by the Interior Department than
this one page of the history of these two bands of the Sioux
tribe, this alone would bo enough to show the urgent niiuil of
an entirely new system. So many and such hasty, ill-con-

THE SIOUX. 183

sidered, uninformed, capricious, and cmeA decisions of arbitrary
power could hardly be found in a seven years' record of any
known tyrant ; and thero is no tyrant whose throne would not
have been rocked, if not upset, by the revolutions which would
have followed on such oppressions.

There is a sequel to this story of the removal of the Red
Cloud and Spotted Tail bands — a sequel not recorded in the
official reports of the Department, but familiar to many men
in the Western country. Accounts of it — some humorous,
some severe — were for some time floating about in "Western
newspapers.

The Eed Cloud and Spotted Tail bands of Sioux consented
to go to the old Ponca Eeserve only after being told that all
their supplies had been sent to a certain point on the Missouri
Eiver with a view to this move ; and it being too late to take_
all this freight northward again, they would starve if they
stayed where they were. Being assured that they would be
allowed to go back in the spring, and having a written pledge
from General Crook (in whose word they had implicit faith)
that the Government would fulfil this promise, they at last
very reluctantly consented to go to the Ponca Keserve for
the winter. In the spring no orders came for the removal.
March passed, April passed — no orders. The chiefs sent
word to their friend, General Crook, who replied to them with
messages sent by a swift runner, begging them not to break
away, but to wait a. little longer. Finally, in May, the Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs went himself to hold a council
with them. When he rose to speak, the chief Spotted Tail
sprung up, walked toward him, waving in his hand the paper
containing the promise of the Government to return them to
White Clay Creek, and exclaimed, "All the men who come
from Washington are liars, and the bald-headed ones are the
worst of all ! I don't want to hear one word from you — you
are a bald-headed old liar ! You have but one thing to do here,

184 A CBNTUBT Off DISHONOB.

and that is to give an order for us to return to Wliito Clay
Creek. Here are your written words ; and if you don't give
this order, and everything here is not 011 wheels inside of ten
days, I'll order my youug men to tear down and bum every-
thing in this part of the country ! I don't want to hear any-
thing more from you, and I'vo gob nothing more to say to
you ; v and he turned his back on the commissioner and walked
away. Such language as this would not have been borne from
unarmed and helpless Indians ; but whon it came from a chief
with four thousand armod warriors at his back, it was another
affair altogether. The order was written. In less than ten
days everything was "on wheels," and the whole body of
these Sioux on the move to the country they had indicated ;
and the Secretary of the Interior says, naively, in his Report
for 1868, "Tho Indians were found to be quite determined to
move westward, and the promise of the Government in that
respect was faithfully kept."

The reports from all the bands of Sioux for the past two
years have been full of indications of their rapid and encour-
aging improvement. "The most decided advance in civiliza-
tion has been made by the Ogallalla and Brulc Sioux,"
says the Eeport of the Indian Bureau for 1879. "Their
progress during the last year and a half has been simply
marvellous."

And yet this one band of Ogallalla Sioux has been moved,
since 1863, eight times. Is it not a wonder that they have
any heart to work, any hope of anything in the future ?

" It is no longer a question," says this same report, " whether
Indians will work. They are steadily asking for opportunities
to do so, and the Indians who to-day are willing and anxious
to engage in civilized labor are largely in tho majority ; * * *
there is an almost universal call for lands in severalty ; * * *
there is a growing desire to live in houses ; the demand for
agricultural implements and appliances, and for wagons and

THE SIOUX. 185

harness for fanning and freighting purposes, is constantly in-
creasing."

That all this should be true of these wild, -warlike Sioux,
after so many years of hardships and forced wanderings and
removals, is incontrovertible proof that there is in them a na-
tive strength of character, power of endurance, and indomitable
courage, which will make of them ultimately a noble and supe-
rior race of people, if civilization will only give them time to
become civilized, and Christians will leave them time and peace
to learn Christianity.

186 A OBNTUBT OF DISHONOR,

CHAPTER VI.

THE PONCAS.

IN 1803 Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clarke, of the First
United States Infantry, were commissioned by Congress to ex-
plore the river Missouri from its mouth to its source, to " seek
the best water communication from thence to the Pacific
Ocean," and to enter into conference with all the Indian tribes
on their route, with a view to the establishment of commerce
with them. They report the " Poncars " as " the remnant of a
nation once respectable in point of numbers ; they formerly re-
sided on a branch of the Ecd River of Lake Winnipeg; being
oppressed by Sioux, they removed to the west side of the Mis-
souri, on Poncar Biver, where they built and fortified a village,
and remained some years ; but, being pursued by their ancient
enemies, the Sioux, and reduced by continual wars, they have
joined and now live with the Mahas (Omahas), whose language
they speak." Their numbers are estimated by Lewis and Clarke
as being only about two hundred, all tolil ; but this small esti-
mate is probably to be explained by the fact that at this time
the tribe was away on its annual buffalo-hunt, and their village
had been so long empty and quiet that a buffalo was found
grazing there. A few years later the tribe is reckoned at four
hundred : in a census of the Indian tribes, taken by General
Porter in 1829, they are set down at six hundred. The artist
Catlin, who visited them a few years later, rated them a little
less. He gives an interesting account of the chief of the tribe,
named Shoo-de-ga-cha (Smoke), and his young and pretty wife,
Hee-la'h-dee (the Pure Fountain), whose portraits he painted.

THE PONCAS. 187

He says : " The chief, who was wrapped in a buffalo-robe, is a
noble specimen of native dignity and philosophy. I conversed
much with him, and from his dignified manners, as well as from
the soundness of his reasoning, I became fully convinced that
he deserved to be the sachem of a more numerous and prosper-
ous tribe. He related to me with great coolness and frankness
the poverty and distress of his nation — and with the method of
a philosopher predicted the certain and rapid extinction of his
tribe, which he had not the power to avert. Poor, noble chief,
who was equal to and worthy of a greater empire ! He sat on
the deck of the steamer, overlooking the little cluster of his
wigwams mingled among the trees, and, like Caius Marius
weeping over the ruins of Carthage, shed tears as he was des-
canting on the poverty of his ill-fated little community, which
he told me had ' once been powerful and happy ; that the buf-
faloes which the Great Spirit had given them for food, and
which formerly spread all over their green prairies, had all been
killed or driven out by the approach of white men, who wanted
their skins ; that their country was now entirely destitute of
game, and even of roots for food, as it was one continuous prai-
rie ; and that his young men, penetrating the countries of their
enemies for buffaloes, which they were obliged to do, were cut
to pieces and destroyed in great numbers. That his people had
foolishly become fond of fire-water, and had given away every-
thing in their country for it ; that it had destroyed many of
his warriors, and would soon destroy the rest ; that his tribe
was too small and his warriors too few to go to war with the
tribes around them ; that they were met and killed by the Sioux
on the north, by the Pawnees on the west, by the Osages and
Konzas on the south, and still more alarmed from the constant
advance of the pale faces — their enemies from the east— with
whiskey and small-pox, which already had destroyed four-fifths
of his tribe, and would soon impoverish and at last destroy the
remainder of them.1 In this way did this shrewd philosopher

188 A CBNTUEY OP DISHONOR.

lament over the unlucky destiny of his tribe, and I pitied him
•with all my heart."

The day before Catlin arrived at this village this old chiefs
son. — the young Hongs-kay-de — had created a great sensation
in the community by accomplishing a most startling amount
of bigamy in a single day. Being the chiefs son, and having
just been presented by his father with a handsome wig wain
and nine horses, he had no difficulty whatever in ingratiating
himself with the fathers of marriageable daughters, and had,
with ingenious slyness, offered himself to and been accepted
by four successive fathers-in-law, promising to each of them
two horses — enjoining on them profound secrecy until a cer-
tain hour, when he would announce to the whole tribe that
he was to be married. At the time appointed he appeared,
followed by some of his young friends leading eight horses.
Addressing the prospective father-in-law who stood nearest
him, with his daughter by his side, he said, " You promised mo
your daughter : here are the two horses." A great hubbub
immediately arose ; the three others all springing forward, an-
gry and perplexed, claiming his promises made to them. Tho
triumphant young Turk exclaimed, " You have all now acknowl-
edged your engagements to me, and must fulfil them. Hero
are your horses." There was nothing moro to bo said. Tho
horses were delivered, and Hongs-kay-do, leading two brides in
each hand, walked off with great dignity to his wigwam.

This was an affair totally unprecedented in the annals of tho
tribe, and produced an impression as profound as it could havo
done in a civilized community, though of a different character
— redounding to tho young prince's credit rather than to his
shame — marking him out as one daring and original enough
to bo a " Big Medicine." Mr. Catlin says that ho visited tho
bridal wigwam soon afterward, and saw the " four modest little
wives seated around the fire, seeming to harmonize very well.'*
Of the prettiest one — " Mong-shong-shaw " (tho Bending Wil-

THE FONCAS. 189

low) — he took a portrait, and a ?ery sweet-faced young woman
she is too, wrapped in a beautifully ornamented fur robe, much
handsomer and more graceful that' the fur-lined circulars worn
by civilized women.

The United States' first treaty v ith this handful of gentle
and peaceable Indians was made in .181 7. It was simply a
treaty of peace and friendship.

In 1825 another was made, in which the Poncas admit
that " they reside within the territorial limits of the United
States, acknowledge their supremacy, and claim their protec-
tion." They also admit "the right of the United! States to
regulate all trade and intercourse with them." The United
States, on their part, " agree to receive the Poncar tribe of In-
dians into their friendship and under their protection, and to
extend to them from time to time such benefits and acts of
kindness as may be convenient, and seem just and proper to
the President of the United States."

After this there is little mention, in the official records of the
Government, of the Poncas for some thirty years. Other tribes
in the Upper Missouri region were so troublesome and aggres-
sive that the peaceable Poncas were left to shift for themselves
as they best could amidst all the warring and warring interests by
which they were surrounded. In 1856 the agent of the Upper
Platte mentions incidentally that their lands were being fast
intruded upon by squatters ; and in 1857 another agent reports
having met on the banks of the Missouri a large band of Pon-
cas, who made complaint that all the Indians on the river were
receiving presents and they were overlooked ; that the men from
the steamboats cut their trees down, and that white settlers
were taking away all their land. In 1858 the Commissioner
for Indian Affairs writes : " Treaties were entered into in
March and April last with the Poncas and Yankton Sioux,
who reside west of Iowa, for the purpose of extinguishing theii
title to all the lands occupied and claimed by them, except

190 A CENTURY 'OF DISHONOR.

small portions on which to colonize and domesticate them.
This proceeding was deemed (necessary in order to obtain such
control over these Indians a-3 to prevent their interference with
our settlements, which are rapidly extending in that direction.
These treaties were duly Uid before the Senate at its last reg-
ular session, but were ri0t, it is understood, finally acted on
by that body.

" Kelying on the ratification of their treaty, and the adoption
of timely measure^- to carry out its provisions in their favor
the Poncas pr&ceeded in good faith to comply with its stip-
ulations byalkndoning their settlements and hunting-grounds,
ancLvlfhdrawing to the small tract reserved for their future
home. Being without a crop to rely upon, and having been
unsuccessful in their usual summer hunt, they were reduced to
a state of desperation and destitution. As nothing had been
done for them under the treaty, they concluded it was void,
and threatened to fall back upon their former settlements, somo
of the most important of which had, in the mean time, been
taken possession of by numerous white persons."

The Poncas never heard of Grotius or Yattel ; but, in assum-
ing that the treaty was void because it was not fulfilled, they
only acted on the natural principles of tho law of nations and
of treaties, as laid down by all authorities. Thucydidcs said :
" They are not the first breakers of a league who, being desert-
ed, seek for aid to others, but they that perform not by their
deeds what they have promised to do upon their oaths."

In consequence of this delay to fulfil the treaty provisions,
the Government was forced to stop in at tho last moment ami
" incur a heavy expense " in furnishing the Poncas with food
enough to keep them from starving ; and in 1850, under this
pressure, the Senate ratified tho treaty, Ly it the Poncas
ceded and relinquished to tlio United States all the lam Is limy
had over owned or claimed, " wherever situate," except a snuill
tract between the Ponca and Mobraru rivers, lu consideration

THE PONCAS. 191

of this cession, the United States Government agreed " to pro-
tect the Poncas in the possession of this tract of land, and
their persons and property thereon, during good behavior on
their part ; to pay them annuities annually for thirty years —
$12,000 for the first five years, then $10,000 for ten years,
then $8000 for fifteen years ; to expend $20,000 for their sub-
sistence during the first year, for building houses, etc. ; to es-
tablish schools, and to build mills, mechanics' shops, etc. ; to
give $20,000 for the payment of the existing obligations of .
the tribe."

Two years later the agent newly appointed to take charge of
the Poncas reports to the Department the amount of improve-
ments made on the reservation : " One saw and grist-mill ; two
agency houses — story and a half houses — without -inside lining
or plastering, 16 by 26 and 18 by 32 feet in size; six small
round log-houses (three with a small shed for a stable), a light
log-corral for cattle, and a canvas shed for storing under ; and
about sixty acres of ground, broken, comprised all the improve-
ments."

Evidently a very small part of the $20,000 had been spent
as yet. He did not find an Indian on the reservation. From
fear of the Sioux (who in 1860 had stolen from them more
than half the horses they owned) they had moved down the
Niobrara Eiver, some twenty miles nearer the Missouri. It was
with the greatest difficulty that the agent induced them to re-
turn; and after they did so, they huddled their tents close
about the agency buildings, and could not be induced to go
half a mile away unless accompanied by some of the white
employes.

As the agent had no food to feed them with, and no money
to buy any (spite of the appropriation of $20,000 for subsist-
ence and house-building), he induced them to go off on a hunt;
but in less than a month they came straggling back, " begging
for provisions for their women and children, whom they had

192 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

left on the plains half-starved, having been unable to find any
game, or any food except wild-turnips. Some of them went
to visit the Omahas, others the Pawnees, where they remained
until the little corn they had planted produced roasting-ears.
In the mean time those who were here subsisted mainly on
wild-cherries and plums and the wild-turnip, and traded away
most of their blankets and annuity goods for provisions."

In 1863 the reports are still more pitiful. " They started
on their summer hunt toward the last of May, immediately
after the first hoeing of their corn. At first they were success-
ful and found buffaloes j but afterward, the ground being occu-
pied by the Yanktons, who were sent south of the Niobrara
by the general commanding the district, and who wore about
double the number, and with four times as many horses, they
soon consumed what meat they had cured, and were compelled
to abandon the chase. They commenced to return in the lat-
ter part of July. They went away with very high hopes, and
reasonably so, of a large crop, but returned to see it all with-
ered and dried up. In the mean time the plains had been burnt
over, so that they could not discover the roots they are in the
habit of digging. Even the wild-plums, which grow on bushes
down in ravines and gullies, are withered and dried on the
limbs. The building I occupy was constantly surrounded by a
hungry crowd begging for food. * * * I am warned by military
authority to keep the Poncas within the limits of the reserva-
tion ; hut this is an impossibility. There is nothing within its
limits, nor can anything be obtained in sufficient quantity, or
brought here soon enough to keep thorn from starving. * * *
The Poncas have behaved well — quite as well, if not better
than, under like circumstances, tho same number of whites
would have done. I have known \vholo families to live for
days together on nothing but half-dried corn-stalks, and this
when thcro wero cattlo and sheep in their sight."

At this time martial law was in force on many of tho Indian

THE PONCAS. 19S

reservations, owing to the presence of roving bands of hostile
Sioux, driven from Minnesota after their outbreak there.

The Poncas through all these troubles remained loyal and
peaceable, and were "unwavering in their fidelity to their
treaty," says the Indian Commissioner.

In December of this year what the governmental reports call
" a very unfortunate occurrence " took place in Nebraska. A
party of Poncas, consisting of four men, six women, three boys,
and two girls, returning from a visit to the Omalias, had
camped for the night about twelve miles from their o\ni reser-
vation. In the night a party of soldiers from a military post
on the Niobrara Eiver came to their camp, and began to insult
the squaws, " offering money with one hand, and presenting a
revolver with the other." The Indians, alarmed, pulled up
their lodge, and escaped to a copse of willows near by. The
soldiers fired at them as they ran away, and then proceeded to
destroy all their effects. They cut the lodge covers to pieces,
burnt the saddles and blankets, cut open sacks of beans, corn,
and dried pumpkin, and strewed their contents on the ground,
and went away, taking with them a skin lodge-covering, bea-
ver-skins, buffalo-robes, blankets, guns, and all the small ar-
ticles. The Indians' ponies were hid in the willows. Early
in the morning they returned with these, picked up all the corn
which had not been destroyed, and such other articles as they
could find, packed their ponies as best they might, and set off
barefooted for home. After they had gone a few miles they
stopped and built a fire to parch some corn to eat. Some of
the women and children went to look for wild-beans, leaving
three women and a child at the camp. Here the soldiers came
on them again. As soon as the Indians saw them coming they
fled. The soldiers fired' on them, wounding one woman by
a ball through her thigh ; another, with a child on her back,
by two balls through the child's thighs, one of which passed
through the mother's side. These women were fired on as

194 A CENTUBY OF DISHONOR.

they were crossing the river on the ice. The soldiers then
took possession of the six ponies and all the articles at the
camp, and left. The squaws and children "who were looking
for beans were half a mile below ; a little dog belonging to
them barked and revealed their hiding-place in the willows.
The soldiers immediately turned on them, dismounted, and,
making up to them, deliberately shot them dead as they hud-
dled helplessly together — three women and a little girl !

One of the boys, a youth, ran for the river, pursued by the
soldiers. On reaching the river lie dived into the water through
a hole in the ice ; as often as he lifted his head they fired at
him.. After they went away he crawled out and escaped to
the agency. One of the murdered women, the mother of this
boy, had three balls in her head and cheek, her throat cut, and
her head half-severed by a sabre-thrust j another, the youngest
woman, had her cloth skirt taken off and carried away, and all
her other clothes torn from her body, leaving it naked !

The men who did this deed belonged to Company B of tho
Seventh Iowa Cavalry.

The outrage was promptly reported to the Department, and
the general commanding the Nebraska District detailed an
officer to examine into it. There was some correspondence be-
tween the military authorities relative to it, but with no result ;
and in the report of the next year tho Indian Commissioner
says : " Attention was called last year to the fact that the mur-
derers of several of this loyal and friendly tribe had not boon
discovered and punished. I trust that, as there secins to be no
probability that this will be done, a special appropriation may
be made for presents to the relatives of the deceased."

In 1865 a supplementary treaty was made with the Poncas,
extending their reservation down the Niobrara to the Missouri
River; and tho Government agreed to pay them $15,000, for
tho purpose of indemnifying them for tho loss they had sus-
tained in this outrage and in others. For the ratification t.f

THE PONCAS. 195

this treaty also they waited two years ; and in 1867 the Super-
intendent of the Dakota Territory says : " Schools would have
been in operation at the Ponca Agency hefore this time but for
the long delay in ratifying the supplementary treaty of 1865 ;
and now that this measure has fortunately been accomplished,
there can be no further necessity for delay, and it is confidently
believed another year will witness the foundation and rapid
progress of an English school at this agency."

This superintendent, having been in office only one year, was
probably not familiar with the provisions of the treaty of 1859
with the Poncas, in which, by Article three, the United States
Government had promised "to establish and maintain for -ten
years,. at an annual expense not to exceed $5,000, one or more
manual labor schools for the education and training of the Ponca
youth in letters, agriculture, mechanics, and housewifery."

This educational annuity has but one more year to run,
whatever may have been done with it up to this time, it really
is now being spent on schools, and it seems a great pity that
it should soon cease. The Governor of Dakota, in 1868, evi-
dently thinks so too, for he writes to the Department, in the
autumn of 1868 : " A school has been in successful operation
at this agency (the Ponca) for the past nine months, with an
average attendance of about fifty scholars, and with every evi-
dence of advancement in the primary department of an English
education. Bat just at this interesting period of its existence
we are notified by the agent that with this fiscal year all funds
for school as well as for agricultural purposes cease, agreeably
to the terms and conditions of their original treaty. This will
be a serious and irreparable calamity if not remedied by the
most generous action of the Government. If funds for this
purpose cannot be otherwise procured, the Poncas are willing
and anxious to transfer their old reservation to the Government
for a moderate extension of these important and indispensable
benefits."

196 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR

The governor also says that in the past year the Poncas have •
paid out of their annuity money for all the improvements which
had been^made on lands occupied by certain white settlers, who
were ejected from their new reservation by the terms of the last
treaty.

In the report for 1869 we read that the Ponca school has
been " discontinued for want of funds." The Department ear-
nestly recommends an appropriation of $25,000 to put it in
operation again. The now Governor of Dakota seconds the
recommendation, and regrets to say that, "for the enlighten-
ment of the 35,000 Indians embraced in the Dakota Snporin-
tendency, there is not one school in operation."

In 1870 an appropriation of $5,000 was made by the Depart-
ment from a general educational fund, for the purpose of re-
suming this school. The condition of the Poncas now is, on
the whole, encouraging ; they are " not only willing, but ex-
tremely anxious to learn the arts by which they may become
self-supporting, and conform to the usages of white men. With
the comparatively small advantages that have been afforded
them, their advancement has "been very great."

In the summer of 1869 they built for themselves sixteen
very comfortable log-houses ; in the summer of 1870 they built
forty-four more ; with their annuity money they bought cook-
stoves, cows, and useful implements of labor. They worked
most assiduously in putting in their crops, but lost them all
by drought, and are in real danger of starvation if the Govern-
ment does not assist them. All this while they see herds of
cattle driven across their reservation to feed the lately hostile
Sioux — flour, coffee, sugar, tobacco, by the wagon-load, distrib-
uted to them — while their own always peaceable, always loyal,
long-suffering tribe is digging wild roots to cat, and in actual
danger of starvation. Nevertheless they are not discouraged,
knowing that but for the drought they would have had ample
food from their farins; and they make no attempts to retaliate

THE POKCAS. 197

on the Sioux for raiding off their horses and stock, because
they hope "that the Government will keep its faith with
them," and that suitable remuneration for these losses will be
made them, according to the treaty stipulations.

For the next two years they worked industriously and well ;
three schools were established j a chapel was built by the Epis-
copal mission ; the village began to assume the appearance of
permanence and thrift; but misfortune had not yet parted
company with the Poncas. In the summer of 1873 the Mis-
souri River suddenly overflowed, washed away its banks ^rmn-
dreds of yards back, and entirely ruined the Ponca village.
By working night and day for two weeks the Indians saved
most of the buildings, carrying them half a mile inland to be
sure of safety. The site of their village became the bed of the
main channel of the river \ their cornfields were ruined, and
the lands for miles in every direction washed and torn up by
the floods.

" For nearly two weeks," the agent writes, " the work of sal-
vage from the ever-threatening destruction occupied our whole
available force night and day. We succeeded in carrying from
the river bank to near half a mile inland the whole of the
agency buildings, mechanics' houses, stabling, and sheds —
more than twenty houses — nearly every panel of fencing.
The Poncas worked well and long, often through the night ;
and the fact that the disaster did not cost us ten dollars of act-
ual loss is to be attributed to their labor, continuous and per-
severing— working sometimes over the swiftly-flowing waters,
terrible and turbid, on the edge of the newly-formed current
but a few inches below them, and into which a fall would have
been certain death, even for an Indian."

In one year after this disaster they had recovered themselves
marvellously; built twenty new houses ; owned over a hundred
head of cattle and fifty wagons, and put three hundred acres of
land under cultivation (about three acres to each male in the

198 A CENTURY OF BISHONOB.

tribe). But this year was not to close without a disaster.
First came a drought ; then three visitations of locusts, one
after the other, which so completely stripped the fields that
"nothing was left but a few prematurely dry stalks and
straw." One hundred young trees which had been set out —
box-elder, soft maple, and others — withered and died.

In 1875 the locusts came again, destroyed the corn and oats,
but left the wheat. Much of this crop, however, was lost, as
there was only ono reaping-machine on the agency, and it
could not do all of the work. Many of the Indians saved a
part of their crop by cutting it with large butcher-knives ; but
this was slow, and much of the wheat dried up and perished
before it could bo harvested by this tedious process.

This year was also marked by a flagrant instance of the
helplessness of Indians in the courts. Two Poncas wore way-
laid by a party of Santees, one of the Poncas murdered, and
the other seriously wounded. This occurred at tho Yankton
Agency, where both parties wore visiting. When tho case was
brought up before the courts, a motion was made to quash the
indictment for want of jurisdiction, and the judge was obliged
to sustain the motion, there being under the present laws no
jurisdiction whatever " over crimes committed by one Indian
on the person or property of another Indian in the Indian
country."

In 1876 the project of consolidating all the Indians in the
United States upon a few reservations began to bo discussed
and urged. If this plan were carried out, it would bo tho
destiny of the Poncas to go to tho Indian Territory. It waa
very gratuitously assumed that, as they had been anxious to
be allowed to remove to Nebraska and join tho Omalias, thej
would be equally ready to remove to Indian Territory — a
process of reasoning whose absurdity would be very plainly
seen if it were attempted to apply it in the case of white inon.

After a series of negotiations, protestations, delays, and be-

POKCAS. 199

wilderroents, tlie tribe at last gave what tlie United States Gov-
ernment chose to call a " consent " to the removal. The story
of the influences, deceits, coercions "brought to bear on these
unfortunate creatures before this was brought about, is one of
the most harrowing among the harrowing records of our deal-
ings with the Indians. A party of chiefs were induced, in the
first place, to go, in company with a United States inspector —
Kemble by name — to the Indian Territory, to see whether the
country would suit them. It was distinctly promised to them
that, if it did not suit them, they should then be permitted to
go to Washington and consult with the President as to some
further plan for their establishment.

The story of this journey and of its results is best told in
the words of one of the Ponca chiefs, Standing Bear. No of-
ficial document, no other man's narrative — no, not if a second
Homer should arise to sing it— could tell the story so well as
he tells it :

" We lived on our land as long as we can remember. No
one knows how long ago we came there. The land was owned
by our tribe as far back as memory of men goes.

" We were living quietly on our farms. All of a sudden
one white man came. We had no idea what for. This was
the inspector. He came to our tribe with Eev. Mr. Hinman.
These two, with the agent, James Lawrence, they made our
trouble.

" They said the President told us to pack up — that we must
move to the Indian Territory.

" The inspector said to us : ' The President says you must
sell this land. He' will buy it and pay you the money, and give
you new land in the Indian Territory.'

" We said to him : ' We do not know your authority. You
have no right to move us till we have had council with the
President.'

u We said to him : ' When two persons wish to make a bar

200 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

gain, they can talk together and find out what each wants, and
then make their agreement.7

" We said to him : i We do not wish to go. When a man
owns anything, he does not let it go till he has received pay-
ment for it/

" We said to him : ' We will see the President first.'

" He said to us : 'I will take you to see the new land. If
you like it, then you can see the President, and tell him so. If
not, then you can see him and tell him so.' And he took all
ten of our chiefs down. I went, and Bright Eyes' uncle went.
He took us to look at three different pieces of land. Ho said
we must take one of the three pieces, so the President said.
After he took us down there he said : ' No pay for the land you
left.'

" We said to him : ' You have forgotten -what you said be-
fore we started. You said we should have pay for our land.
Now you say not. You told us then you were speaking truth.'
All these three men took us down there. The man got very
angry. He tried to compel us to take one of the three pieces
of land. He told us to bo bravo. Ho said to us : ' If you do
not accept these, I will leave you here alone. You are one
thousand miles from home. You have no money. You have
no interpreter, and you cannot speak the language.1 And ho
went out and slammed the door. The man talked to us from
long before sundown till it was nine o'clock at night.

" We said to him : ' We do not like this land. We could
not support ourselves. The water is bad. Now send us to
Washington, to toll the President, as you promised.'

"He said to us : l The President did not toll me to take you
to Washington ; neither did ho toll mo to take you home.'

" We said to him : ' You have the Indian money you took
to bring us down here. That money belongs to us. We would
like to have some of it. People do not give away food for
nothing. We must have money to buy food on the road.'

THE PONCAS. 201

" He said to us : 'I will not give you a cent.'

" We said to him : ' We are in a strange country. We can-
not find our way home. Give us a pass, that people may show
us our way.'

" He said : c I will not give you any.'

" We said to him : ' This interpreter is ours. We pay him.
Let him go with us.'

" He said : ' You shall not have the interpreter. He is mine,
and not yours.'

" We said to him : ' Take us at least to the railroad ; show
us the way to that.'

" And he would not. He left us right there. It was winter.
We started for home on foot. At night we slept in hay-stacks.
We harely lived till morning, it was so cold. We had nothing
but our hlankets. We took the ears of corn that had dried in
the fields ; we ate it raw. The soles of our moccasins wore
out. We were barefoot in the snow. We were nearly dead
when we reached the Otoe Eeserve. It had been fifty days.
We stayed there ten days to strengthen up, and the Otoes gave
each of us a pony. The agent of the Otoes told us he had re*
ceived a telegram from the inspector, saying that the Indian
chiefs had run away ; not to give us food or shelter, or help in
any way. The agent said : 'I would like to understand. Tell
me all that has happened. Tell me the truth.' "

(This Otoe agent afterward said, that when the chiefs en-
tered his room they left the prints of their feet in blood on the
floor as they came in.)

" Then we told our story to the agent and to the Otoe chiefs
— how we had been left down there to find our way.

" The agent said : ' I can hardly believe it possible that any
one could have treated you so. That inspector was a poor man
to have done this. If I had taken chiefs in this way, I would
have brought them home ,• I could not have left them there.'

" In seven days we reached the Omaha Reservation. Then

9

202 A CENTTOY OP DISHONOB.

we sent a telegram to tho President : asked him if he had au-
thorized this thing. We waited three days for the answer.
No answer came.

" In four days we reached our own home. "We found the
inspector there. Wliile we were gone, he had corue to our peo-
ple and told them to move.

" Our people said : ' Where are our chiefs 1 What have you
done with them? Why have you not "brought them back?
We will not move till our chiefs come hack.'

" Then the inspector told them : c To-morrow you must he
ready to move. If you are not ready you will ho shot.' Then
the soldiers came to the doors with their bayonets, and ten
families were frightened. The soldiers brought wagons ; they
put their things in and were carried away. Tho rest of the
tribe would not move.

" When we got there, we asked the inspector why ho had
done this thing, and he got very angry.

" Then we said to him : ' Wo did not think we would see
your face again, after what has passed. We thought never to
see your face any more. But here you are.'

"We said to him: 'This land is ours. It belongs to us.
You have no right to take it from us. Tho laud is crowded
with people, and only this is left to us.'

" We said to him : ' Let us alone. Oo away from us. If
you want money, take all the money which the President is to
pay us for twelve years to come. You may have it all, if you
will go and leave us our lands.'

" Then, when ho found that we would not go, ho wrote for
more soldiers to come.

" Then tho soldiers came, and wo locked our doors, and the
women and children hid in the woods. Then tho soldiers
drove all the people the other side of tho river, all hut my
brother Big Snake and I. We did not go ; and tho soldiers
took us and earned us away to a fort and put us in juiL

THE PONCAS. 203

There were eight officers who held council with us after we
got there. The commanding officer said: *I have received
four messages telling me to send my soldiers after you. Now,
what have you done 1 '

" Then we told him the whole story. Then the officer said :
* You have done no wrong. The land is yours ; they had no
right to take it from you. Your title is good. I am here to
protect the weak, and I have no right to take you; but I am
a soldier, and I have to obey orders.'

" He said : ' I will telegraph to the President, and ask him
what I shall do. We do not think these three men had any
authority to treat yon as they have done. When we own a
piece of land, it belongs to us till we seU it and pocket the
money*'

"Then he brought a telegram, and said he had received an-
swer from the President. The President said he knew nothing
about it.

" They kept us in jail ten days. Then they carried us back
to ottr home. The soldiers collected all the women and chil-
dren together • then they called all the chiefs together in coun-
cil; and then they took wagons and went round and broke
open the houses. When we came back from the council we
found the women and children surrounded by a guard of sol-
diers.

" They took our reapers, mowers, hay-rakes, spades, ploughs,
bedsteads, stoves, cupboards, everything we had on our farms,
and put them in one large building. Then they put into the
wagons such things as they could carry. We told them that
we would rather die than leave our lands ; but we could not
help ourselves. They took us down. Many died on the road.
Two of my children died. After we reached the new land, all
my horses died. The water was very bad. All our cattle
died ; not one was left. I stayed till one hundred and fifty-
eight of my people had died. Then I ran away with thirty of

204 A CBNTITET OB1 DISHONOR.

my people, men and women and children. Some of the chil-
dren were orphans. We were three months on the road. We
•were weak and sick and starved. When we reached the Omaha
Eeserve the Omahas gave us a piece of land, and we were in a
hurry to plough it and put in wheat. While we were working
the soldiers came and arrested us. Half of us were sick. We
would rather have died than have heen carried back ; hut we
could not help ourselves."

Nevertheless they were helped. The news of their arrest,
and the intention of the Government to take them hack by
force to Indian Territory, roused excitement in Omaha. An
Omaha editor and two Omaha lawyers determined to test the
question whether the Government had a legal right to do it.
It seemed a bold thing, almost a hopeless thing, to undertake.
It has passed into a proverb that Providence is on the side
of the heaviest battalions : the oppressed and enslaved in all
ages have felt this. But there are times when a simple writ of
habeas corpus is stronger than cannon or blood-hounds ; and
this was one of these times. Brought into the District Court
of the United States for the District of Nebraska, those Poncas
were set free by the judge of that court. Will not the name
of Judge Dundy stand side by side with that of Abraham
^Lincoln in the matter of Emancipation Acts?

The Government attorney, the Hon. G. M. Lambortson, made
an argument five hours long, said to have been both "ingenious
and eloquent," to prove that an Indian was not entitled to the
protection of the writ of habeas corpus, " not being a person
or citizen iindor the law."

Judge Dundy took several days to consider the case, and
gave a decision which strikes straight to the root of the whole
matter — a decision which, when it is enforced throughout our
land, will take tho ground out from under tho feet of the horde
of unscrupulous thieves who have been robbing, oppressing,
and maddening the Indians for so long, that to try to unniask

THE PONCAS. 205

and expose their processes, or to make clean their methods, is
a task before which hundreds of good men— nay, whole de-
nominations of good men— disheartened, baffled, and worn-
out, have given up.

When Standing Bear found that by the decision of Judge
Dundy he was really a free man, and could go where he
pleased, he made a speech which should never be forgotten or
left out in the history of the dealings of the United States
Government with the Indians.

After a touching expression of gratitude to the lawyers who
had pleaded his cause, he said : " Hitherto, when we have been
wronged, we went to war to assert our rights and avenge our
wrongs. We took the tomahawk. We had no law to punish
those who did wrong, so we took our tomahawks and went to
kill. If they had guns and could kill us first, it was the fate
of war. But you have found a better way. You have gone
into the court for us, and I find that our wrongs can be righted
there. Now I have no more use for the tomahawk. I want
to lay it down forever."

Uttering these words with eloquent impressiveness, the old
chief, stooping down, placed the tomahawk on the floor at his
feet ; then, standing erect, he folded his arms with native dig-
nity, and continued : " I lay it down. I have no more use for
it. I have found a better way."

Stooping again and taking up the weapon, he placed it in
Mr. Webster's hands, and said : " I present it to you as a
token of my gratitude. I want you to keep it in remembrance
of this great victory which you have gained, I have no further
use for it. I can now seek the ways of peace."

The first use that Standing Bear made of his freedom was
to endeavor to procure the freedom of his tribe, and establish
their legal right to their old home in Dakota. Accompanied
by a young and well-educated Omaha girl and her brother aa
interpreters, and by Mr. Tibbies, the champion and friend t<r

206 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

whom he owed his freedom, he went to the Eastern States, and
told the story of the sufferings and wrongs of his tribe to largo
audiences in many of the larger cities and towns. Money was
generously subscribed everywhere for the purpose of bringing
suits to test the question of the Poncas' legal right to the lands
which the United States Government had by treaty ceded to
them in specified "townships," thus giving to them the same
sort of title which would be given to any corporation or in-
dividual.

Yery soon this movement of Standing Bear and his com-
panions began to produce on the community a strong effect,
shown by the interest in their public meetings, and by expres-
sions of strong feeling in the newspapers. This attracted the
attention of the authorities at Washington. Letters were pub-
lished contradicting many of Standing Bearrs assertions j state-
ments were circulated injurious to the reputation of all mem-
bers of the party. A careful observer of the whole course of
the Department of the Interior in this matter could not fail to
come to the conclusion that for some mysterious, unexplained,
and unexplainable reason the Department did not wish — in
fact, was unwilling — that the Ponca tribe should be rein-
stated on its lands. Discussions on the matter grew warm. The
inspector who had been concerned in their removal published
long letters reflecting equally on the veracity of Standing Bear
and of the Secretary of the Interior. Standing Bear replied
in a few pithy words, which were conclusive in their proving
of the falsity of some of the inspector's statements. The Secre-
tary, also, did not think it beneath his dignity to reply in
successive newspaper articles to the inspector's reflections upon
him ; but the only thing that was made clear by this means
was that either the Secretary or the inspector, or both, said
what was not true.

In Boston the interest in the Ponca case reached such a
height that a committee was appointed to represent the case in

THE PONCAS. 207

Washington, and to secure legislation upon it. Standing Bear
and his party went to Washington, and, in spite of the secret
hostility of the Interior Department, produced a powerful im-
pression upon Congress. Senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, and
Senator Morgan, of Alabama, both became warm advocates of
their cause. The subject once started, case after case came up
for investigation ; and the Congressional committees called for
evidence in regard to several of the more striking instances of
injustice to Indians.

White Eagle, one of the Ponca chiefs, who had lost his wife
and four children, and who was himself fast sinking under dis-
ease developed by the malarial Indian Territory, canie to Wash-
ington and gave eloquent testimony in behalf of his tribe. The
physicians there predicted that he had not three months to live.
A bill was introduced into Congress for restoring to the Poncas
their old reservation in Dakota, and putting their houses, farms,
etc., in the same good condition they were at the time of their
removal.

The story of that removal was written out in full at the
time by the agent who superintended it. That he should for-
ward this report to the Department of the Interior was nat-
ural; but that the Department of the Interior should have
been willing to publish it to the country, to have it on the
official record of its management of Indian affairs for the year
1877, is strange. It will make a fitting conclusion to this
sketch of the history of the Ponca tribe. The name of this
agent was E. A. Howard. He calls the report " Journal of the
March."

"May 2Ist. Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to
Crayton, a distance of thirteen miles. Eoads very heavy. The
child that died yesterday was here buried by the Indians, they
preferring to bury it than to have it buried by the white
people.

"May 22d Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to

208 A CENTUBT OP DISHONOB.

Neligh, a distance of about twenty-five miles. The day was
cool, and, the road being high and comparatively good, the
travel was made -without much inconvenience.

" May 23d. The morning opened with light rain; but at
eight o'clock a terrific thunder-storm occurred of two hours'
duration, which was followed by steady rain throughout the
day, in consequence of which we remained in camp. During
the day a child died, and several women and children were
reported sick, and medical attendance and medicine were pro-
cured for them.

"May 24$. Buried the child that died yesterday in the
cemetery at Neligh, giving it a Christian burial. Broke camp
at ten o'clock and marched about eight miles, crossing the Elk-
horn Eiver about two miles below Oakdale Village. Were un-
able to cross at Neligh, the road being about two feet under
water and the bridges being washed away. The road was fear-
fully bad, and much time and labor were expended in making
the road and bridges at all passable over the Elk-horn flats,
where the crossing was effected.

" May 25$. Broke camp at six o'clock and marched twenty
miles, to a point on Shell Creek. No wood at this place, and
none to be had except what little had been picked up and
brought in by the trains. Weather cold, damp, and dreary.
The Indians during the day behaved well, and marched splen-
didly,

" May 26$. The morning opened with a heavy continuous
rain, which prevailed until ten o'clock. Broke camp at eleven
o'clock and marched eight miles farther down Shell Creek,
when it again commenced raining, and wo went into camp.
The evening set in cold and rainy, and no wood to be had ex-
cept what was purchased of a settler.

" May 27$. The morning opened cold, with a misty rain.
Eain ceased at half-past seven o'clock, and we broke camp at
eight and marched eight miles farther down Shell Creek, when,

THE P02STCAS. 209

a heavy thunder-storm coming on, we again went into camp.
Several of the Indians were here found to be quite sick, and
having no physician, and none being attainable, they gave us
much anxiety and no little trouble. The daughter of Standing
Bear, one of the chiefs, was very low of consumption, and mov-
ing her with any degree of comfort was almost impossible, and
the same trouble existed in transporting all the sick.

" May 28^. Last evening I gave orders to break camp at
five o'clock this morning, intending, if practicable, to reach Co-
lumbus before night ; but a heavy thunder-storm prevailed at
that time. Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched seven miles,
when we came to a slough confluent to Shell Creek, which was
only made passable after two hours of active work in cutting
willow-brush and bringing a large quantity of wheat straw from
a distance of thirty rods, with which we covered the road thickly.
After crossing the slough we marched to a point on Shell Creek
and camped, having made about fourteen miles during the day.

" May 29^. Broke camp at seven o'clock and crossed Shell
Creek. For about five miles the road led over a divide, and
was quite good ; but in coming down on the flats, which ex-
tended for five miles between the Bluffs and Columbus, we
found the roads for the entire distance almost impassable, ow-
ing to the many deep, miry sloughs which cross the road, and
the generally flooded and yielding condition of the soil aside
from the sloughs. Teams had to be frequently doubled, in
order to get the wagons through. The difficulties were finally
overcome, and the train marched into Columbus at two o'clock,
and went into camp at Soap Fork, having made a march of
about ten miles, the march of five miles across the flats occu- .
pying about seven hours. Major Walker, who had accompanied
us from the Niobrara Eiver to this place with twenty-five sol-
diers, under orders from the War Department, took leave of us,
and returned to Dakota."

It was asserted again and again by the Secretary of the In-

9*

210 A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

terior, and by the inspector, E. C. Kemble, that these Indians
were not removed by force — that they consented to go.

In another part of this same report this agent says :

"On the 15th "(six days before the "march" began) "I
held another council, which was largely attended by the chiefs,
headmen, and soldiers of the tribe, and which was of more than
four hours' duration. At this council the Indians maintained
that the Government had no right to move them from the res-
ervation, and demanded, as an inducement or equivalent for
them to give up the reservation and move to the Indian Terri-
tory— first, the payment to them by the Government of the
sum of $3,000,000 \ and, second, that, before starting, I should
show to them the sum of $40,000 which they had been told
had been appropriated by the Government for their removal.
To all of which I replied positively in the negative, telling
them that I would not accede to nor consider any demands
that they might make ; but that I would take under my con-
sideration reasonable requests that they might submit touching
their removal, and, as their agent, do what I could for them in
promoting their welfare } that I demanded that they should at
all times listen to my words j that they should go with me to
their new home \ and that they should without delay give me
their final answer whether they would go peaceably or by force.
The Indians refused to give answer at this time ; the council
closed without definite results ; and the Indians dispersed with
a sullen look and determined expression."

This evidently was not the " consent " of which we have
heard. We come to it presently.

"On the following morning, however, May 16th, they sent
word to me, at an early hour, that they had considered my
words, and had concluded to go with me, and that they wanted
assistance in getting the old and infirm, together with their
property, over the Niobrara Eiver, which was much swollen by
the rains and at a low temperature."

THE PONCAS.

- "What a night must these helpless creatures have passed be-
fore this " consent " was given ! Seven hundred people, more
than half of them women and children ; a farming people, not
armed with rifles, as the Ogallalla Sioux were, when, one year
later, on this same ground, the Chief Spotted Tail told Com-
missioner Hayt that, if he did not give an order to have his
tribe on the way back to White Clay Creek in ten days, his
young men would go on the war-path at once j and the much-
terrified commissioner wrote the order then and there, and the
Sioux were allowed to go where they had chosen to go. Be-
hold the difference between the way our Government treats
the powerful and treats the weak ! What could these Ponca
farmers do? They must, "without delay," give their "final
answer whether they would go peaceably or by force" What
did "by force" mean? It was "by force" that the Govern-
ment undertook to compel the Cheyennes to go to Indian
Territory ; and in that Cheyenne massacre the Cheyenne men,
women, children, and babies were all shot down together !

What could these Ponca farmers do? What would any
father, brother, husband have done under the circumstances?
He would have "consented" to go.

The agent, as was wise, took them at their word, quickly,
and that very day, " at five o'clock P.M., had the entire tribe,
with their effects, across the river, off the reservation, and in
camp in Nebraska."

The agent should have said, " with part of their effects," for
it was only a part, and a very small part, that this helpless
consenting party were allowed to take with them. All their
agricultural implements and most of their furniture were left
behind.

" It was a hard day's work," the getting the tribe and their
"effects" across the river, the agent says; "the river being
about forty rods wide, and the current so swift that it was
found impossible to move the goods across in any other way

212 A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

than by packing them on the shoulders of the men, the quick-
sand "bottom, rendering it unsafe to trust them on the backs
of animals; even the wagons having to be drawn across by
hand."

Let us dwell for a moment on this picture. Seven hundred
helpless, heart-broken people beginning their sad journey by
having to ford this icy stream with quicksands at bottom.
The infirm, the sick, the old, the infants, all carried "by pack-
ing them on the shoulders of the men ! " What a scene ! The
Honorable Secretary of the Interior said, in one of the letters
in his newspaper controversy with the inspector in regard to
the accounts of this removal, that " the highly-colored stories
which are told about the brutal military force employed in
compelling their [the Poncas'] removal from Dakota to the
Indian Territory are sensational fabrications ; at least, the of-
ficial record, which is very full, and goes into minute details,
does not in the least bear them out."

There was never any accusation brought against the "mili-
tary force" of "brutality" in this removal The brutality
was on the part of the Government. The simple presence
of the " military force " was brutal, It meant but one thing.
The Indians understood it, and the Government intended that
they should understand it ; and when the agent of the Govern-
ment said to these Indians that they must give him their "final
answer whether they would go peaceably or by force/' he in-
tended that they should understand it. Has anybody any
doubt what were the orders under which that " military force "
was there 1 any doubt what it would have been the military
duty of Major Walker to have done in case the Poncas had
refused to "consent" to go?

And now let us return to the " Official Becord," which is,
indeed, as the Honorable Secretary of the Interior says, "very
full," and " goes into minute details," and let us see in how
much it will " bear us out j " and when we have done with this

POtfCAS. 213

" Official Record," let us ask ourselves if any imagination could
have invented so " highly-colored " a " story " as it tells.

" June 2d. Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched sev
enteen miles, going into camp near Ulysses. Eoads in bad
condition.

"June 3d. Had some trouble in getting started. Broke
camp at eleven o'clock and marched eight miles. Went into
camp on Blue Eiver. Many people sick, one of whom was re-
ported in a dying condition. Had bad roads. Rained during
afternoon.

" June teh. Broke camp at six o'clock. Marched fifteen
miles, and went into camp on Lincoln Creek, near Seward.

" June 5th. Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched four-
teen miles, and went into camp near Milford. Daughter of
Standing Bear, Ponca chief, died at two o'clock, of consump-
tion.

" June 6th. Eemained in camp all day, for the purpose of
obtaining supplies. Prairie Flower, wife of Shines White and
daughter of Standing Bear, who died yesterday, was here given
Christian burial, her remains being deposited in the cemetery at
Milford, Nebraska, a small village on Blue River.

" In this connection I wish to take official knowledge and
recognition of the noble action performed by the ladies of
Milford, in preparing and decorating the body of the deceased
Indian woman for burial in a style becoming the highest civ-
ilization. In this act of Christian kindness they did more to
ameliorate the grief of the husband and father than they could
have done by adopting the usual course of this untutored peo-
ple and presenting to each a dozen ponies. It was here that,
looking on the form of his dead daughter thus arrayed for the
tomb, Standing Bear was led to forget the burial-service of his
tribe, and say to those around him that he was desirous of
leaving off the ways of the Indian and adopting those of the
white men.

214 A CENTUEY OF DISHONOR.

"June 1th. Quite a heavy rain during the afternoon. The
storm, most disastrous of any that occurred during the removal
of the Poncas under my charge, canae suddenly upon us while
in camp on the evening of this day. It was a storm such as I
never "before experienced, and of which I am unable to give an
adequate description. The wind blew a fearful tornado, demol-
ishing every tent in camp, and rending many of them into
shreds, overturning wagons, and hurling wagon-boxes, camp-
equipages, etc., through the air in every direction like straws.
Some of the people were taken tip by the wind and carried as
much as three hundred yards. 'Several of the Indians were
quite seriously hurt, and one child died the next day from in-
juries received, and was given Christian burial. The storm
caused a delay until the 8th for repairs, and for medical attend-
ance upon the injured.

"June 8th. Broke camp at Milford and marched seven
miles. Eoads very bad. Child died during the day.

" June $th. Put the child that died yesterday in the coffin
and sent it back to Milford, to be buried in the same grave with
its aunt, Prairie Flower. Broke camp at seven o'clock and
marched to within three miles of C^ete.

" June 10Z/L Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched one
mile beyond De Witt, where I employed a physician to visit
camp and prescribe for the sick. A woman had a thumb acci-
dentally cut off, which caused further commotion in the camp.

"June 12th. Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to
within two miles of Otoe Agency. Crossed Wolf Creek with
a part of the train, the crossing being very difficult ; but the
Indians worked splendidly."

" The Indians worked splendidly ! " Is not this a well-nigh
incredible record of patience and long-suffering 1 These poor
creatures, marching from ten to twenty-five miles a day, for
twenty-two days, through muddy sloughs, swollen rivers, in
tempests and floods and dreary cold, leaving their wives and

THE PONOAS. 215

their children dead by the way — dead of the sufferings of the
march — are yet docile, obedient, and "work splendidly!"

"June I3th. After considerable time we succeeded in build-
ing a bridge over Wolf Creek out of drift-timber, and suc-
ceeded in crossing the balance of the train. Broke camp and
marched three miles, and went into camp again near Otoe
Agency.

" June I4:tk. Water-bound, and had to remain in camp all
day waiting for creek to run down. The Otoe Indians came
out to see the Poncas, and gave them ten ponies.

"June I5th. Still water-bound. Kemained in camp all day.

"June 16th. Broke camp at seven o'clock and reached Ha-
rysville, Kansas, where we went into camp. During the march
a wagon tipped over, injuring a woman quite severely. Indians
out of rations, and feeling hostile."

What wonder that the Indians felt hostile ? Hunger added
to all the rest of their direful misery !

"June 18th. Broke camp at. seven o'clock. Marched nine
miles and went into camp at Elm Creek. Little Cottonwood
died. Four families determined to return to Dakota. I was
obliged to ride nine miles on horseback to overtake them, to
restore harmony, and settle difficulty in camp. Had coffin
made for dead Indian, which was brought to camp at twelve
o'clock at night from Blue Eapids. A fearful thunder-storm
during the night, flooding the camp-equipage."

This is a "highly-colored" story, indeed ! The darkness ;
the camp flooded by the driving rain ; thunder and lightning ; a
messenger arriving at midnight with a coffin ] the four families
of desperate fugitives setting out to flee back to their homes !
What "sensational fabrication " could compete with this 1

"June 19th. The storm of last night left the roads in an
impassable condition, and, in consequence, was obliged to re-
main in camp all day. Buried Little Cottonwood in a ceme
tery about five miles from camp. * * *

216 A OENTUBY OP DISHONOB.

" June 25th. Broke camp at six o'clock. Marched to a point
about fifteen miles farther up Deep Creek. Two old women
died during the day. * * *

"June 3(Wa. Broke camp at six o'clock. Passed through
Hartford, and camped about six miles above Burlington. A
child of Buffalo Chief died during the day. * * *

" July 2d. Broke camp at six o'clock. Made a long march
of fifteen miles for Noon Camp, for reason that no water could
be got nearer. An Indian became hostile, and made a desper-
ate attempt to kill White Eagle, head chief of the tribe. Tor a
time every male in camp was on the war-path, and for about
two hours the most intense excitement prevailed, heightened by
continued loud crying by all the women and children."

This Indian, who is reported here as having " become hos-
tile," no doubt, tried to kill White Eagle for having allowed
the tribe to be brought into all this trouble. It is the general
feeling among the less intelligent members of a tribe that their
chiefs are bound, under all circumstances, to see that they come
to no harm.

" July §th Broke camp at six o'clock, passing through Bax-
ter Springs at about one o'clock. Just after passing Baxter
Springs a terrible thunder-storm struck us. The wind blew a
heavy gale and the rain fell in torrents, so that it was impos-
sible to see more than four or five rods distant, thoroughly
drenching every person and every article in the train, making
a fitting end to a journey commenced by wading a river and
thereafter encountering innumerable storms.

"During the last few days of the journey the weather was
exceedingly hot, and the teams terribly annoyed and bitten by
green-head flies, which attacked them in great numbers. Many
of the teams were nearly exhausted, and, had the distance been
but little farther, they must have given out. The people were
all nearly worn out from the fatigue of the march, and were
heartily glad that the long, tedious journey was at an end, that

THE PONCAS. 217

they might take that rest so much required for the recupera-
tion of their physical natures." Now let us see what provision
the Government had made for that "rest" and "recuperation,"
surely " much required " and fairly earned. Not one dollar had
been appropriated for establishing them in their new home; not
one building had been put up. This people was set down in a
wilderness without one provision of any kind for their shelter.

"It is a matter of astonishment to me," says Agent Howard
(p. 100 of this " Report "), "that the Government should have
ordered the removal of the Ponca Indians from Dakota to the
Indian Territory without having first made some provision for
their settlement and comfort. Before their removal was carried
into effect an appropriation should have been made by Con.
gress sufficient to have located them in their new home, by
building a comfortable home for the occupancy of every family
of the tribe. As the case now is, no appropriation has been
made by Congress except of a sum little more than sufficient
to remove them; and the result is that these people have been
placed on an uncultivated reservation, to live in their tents as
best they may, and await further legislative action."

This journal of Mr. Howard's is the best record that can ever
be written of the sufferings of the Poncas in their removal
from their homes. It is "highly colored ;" but no one, how-
ever much it may be for his interest to do so, can call it "a
sensational fabrication," or can discredit it in the smallest par-
ticular, for it is an " official record," authorized and endorsed
by being published in the "Annual Eeport" of the Secretary
of the Interior.

The remainder of the Ponca tribe is still in Indian Territory,
awaiting anxiously the result of the efforts to restore to them
their old homes, and to establish the fact of their indisputable
legal right to them.*

* See Appendix, Art. II., for later facts in the history of tfte Poncas,

218 A OBNTUBY OF DISHONOR

CHAPTER VII.

THE WINNEBAGOES.

THE. Winnebagoes "belonged to the Dakota family, but, so
far as can "be known, were naturally a peace-loving people, and
had no sympathy with the more warlike tribes of their race.
The Algonquins gave them the name of Winnebagoes, or " peo-
ple of the salt-water;" and as the Algonquin word for salt-
water and stinking-water was the same, the French called them
" Les Puants," or " Stinkards." The Sioux gave them a more
melodious and pleasing name, " 0-ton-kah," which signified
"The large, strong people,"

Bancroft, in his account of the North American tribes, says :
" One little community of the Dakota (Sioux) family had pen-
etrated the territories of the Algonquins : the Winnebagoes
dwelling between Green Bay and the lake that bears their
name preferred to be environed by Algonquins than to stay in
the dangerous vicinity of their own kindred."

One of the earliest mentions that is found of this tiibe, in
the diplomatic history of our country, is in the reports given
of a council held in July, 1815, at "Portage des Sioux," in
Missouri, after the treaty of Ghent. To this council the Win-
nebagoes refused to send delegates ; and their refusal was evi-
dently considered a matter of some moment. The commis-
sioners " appointed to treat with the North-western Indians "
at this time reported that they found " the Indians much di-
vided among themselves in regard to peace with the United
States." Some of them " spoke without disguise of their op-
position to military establishments on the Mississippi," and

THE WINTSrEBAGOES. 219

many of them, " among whom were the Winnebagoes, utterly
refused to send deputies to the council," This disaffection
was thought "by the commissioners to he largely due to the
influence of British traders, who plied the Indians with gifts,
and assured them that war would soon break out again be-
tween the United States and Great Britain. It is probable,
however, that the Winnebagoes held themselves aloof from
these negotiations more from a general distrust of white men
than from any partisan or selfish leaning to the side of Great
Britain; for when Dr. Jedediah Morse visited them, only seven
years later, he wrote : " There is no other tribe which seems to
possess so much jealousy of the whites, and such reluctance to
have intercourse with them, as this."

Spite of this reluctance they made, in 1816, a treaty " of
peace and friendship with the United States,7' agreeing "to
remain distinct and separate from the rest of their nation or
tribe, giving them no assistance whatever until peace shall be
concluded between the United States and their tribe or nation."
They agreed also to confirm and observe all the lines of British,
French, or Spanish cessions of land to the United States.

In 1825 the United States Government, unable to endure
the spectacle of Indians warring among themselves, and massa-
cring each other, appears in the North-western country as an
unselfish pacificator, and compels the Sacs, Eoxes, Chippewas,
and Sioux, including the Winnebagoes, to make a treaty of
peace and friendship with each other and with the United
States. The negotiations for this treaty occupied one month ;
which does not seem a long time when one considers that the
boundaries of all the lands to be occupied by these respective
tribes were to be defined, and that in those days and regions
definitions of distance were stated in such phrases as " a half
day's march/' " a long day's march," " about a day's paddle in
a canoe," "to a point where the woods come out into the
meadows," " to a point on Buffalo Kiver, half way between its

220 A OENTURY OF DISHONOR.

source and its mouth." These were surely precarious terms
for peace to rest upon, especially as it was understood by all
parties that " no tribe shall hunt within the actual limits of
any other without their consent."

At the close of this treaty there occurred a curious incident,
which Schoolcraft calls " an experiment on the moral sense of
the Indians with regard to intoxicating liquors." " It had been
said by the tribes that the true reason for the Commissioners of
the United States speaking against the use of ardent spirits by
the Indians, and refusing to give it to them, was the fear of ex-
pense, and not a sense of its bad effects. To show them that
the Government was above such a petty motive, the commis-
sioners had a long row of tin camp-kettles, holding several gal-
lons each, placed on the grass ; and then, after some suitable
remarks, each kettle was spilled out in their presence. The
thing was ill-relished by the Indians, who loved the whiskey
better than the joke/7

At this time the lands of the Winnebagoes lay between the
Bock and the Wisconsin rivers, along the shore of Winnebago
Lake, and the Indians claimed that the whole lake belonged
to them. It was here that President Morse had found them
living in 1822. He gives the following graphic picture of their
pleasant home : " They have five villages on the Lake, and
fourteen on Kock Eiver. The country has abundance of
springs, small lakes, ponds, and rivers ; a rich soil, producing
corn and all sorts of grain. The lakes abound with fine-fla-
vored, firm fish." Of the Indians themselves, he says : " They
are industrious, frugal, and temperate. They cultivate corn,
potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, and beans, and are remarkably
provident. They numbered five hundred and eighty souls."

In 1827 a third treaty was signed by the Winnebagoes,
Chippewas, and Menomonies with the United States and with
each other. This treaty completed the system of boundaries
of their lands, which had been only partially defined by the two

THE WmNEBAGOES. 221

previous treaties. Of these three treaties Schoolcraft says:
" These three conferences embody a new course and policy for
keeping the tribes in peace, and are founded on the most en-
larged consideration of the aboriginal right of fee-simple to
the soil They have been held exclusively at the charge and
expense of the United States, and contain no cession of terri-
tory."

They were the last treaties of their kind. In 1828 the peo-
ple of Northern Illinois were beginning to covet and trespass
on some of the Indian lands, and commissioners were sent to
treat with the Indians for the surrender of such lands. The
Indians demurred, and the treaty was deferred ; the United
States in the mean time agreeing to pay to the four tribes
$20,000, " in full compensation for all the injuries and dam-
ages sustained by them in consequence of the occupation of
any part of the mining country."

In 1829 a benevolent scheme for the rescue of these hard-
pressed tribes of the North-western territory was proposed by
Mr. J. D. Stevens, a missionary at Mackinaw. He suggested
the formation of a colony of them in the Lake Superior region.
He says — and his words are as true to-day, in 1879, as they
were fifty years ago : " The Indian is in every view entitled to
sympathy. The misfortune of the race is that, seated on the
skirts of the domain of a popular government, they have no
vote to give. They are politically a nonentity. * * * The whole
Indian race is not worth one white man's vote. If the Indian
were raised to the right of giving his suffrage, a plenty of
politicians on the frontiers would enter into plans to better
him ; whereas now the subject drags along like an incubus in
Congress."

It did, indeed. Appropriations were sadly behindhand. The
promises made to the Indians could not be fulfilled, simply
because there was no money to fulfil them with. In 1829 a
"Washington correspondent writes to Mr. Schoolcraft : " There

222 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

is a screw loose in the public machinery somewhere. In 1827
we were promised $48,000 for the Indian service, and got
$30,000 ; in 1828 $40,000, and got $25,000." A little later
the Secretary of War himself writes : " Our annual appropria-
tion has not yet passed; and when it will, I am sure I cannot
tell"

In 1830 the all-engrossing topic of Congress is said to be
" the removal of the Indians. It occupies the public mind
throughout the Union, and petitions and remonstrances are
pouring in without number."

Meantime the Indians were warring among themselves, and
also retaliating on the white settlers who encroached upon their
lands. The inevitable conflict had begun in earnest, and in
September of 1832 the Winnebagoes were compelled to make
their first great cession of territory to the United States. In
exchange for it they accepted a tract west of the Mississippi,
and before the 1st of June, 1833, most of those who were liv-
ing on the ceded lands had crossed the river to their new
homes. Their title to this new country was not so good as
they probably supposed, for the treaty expressly stated that it
was granted to them " to be held as other Indian lands are
held."

Article three of this treaty said, " As the country hereby
ceded by the Winnebagoes is more extensive and valuable than
that given by the United States in exchange," the United States
would pay to the Winnebagoes $10,000 annually in specie for
twenty-seven years. The Government also promised to put up
buildings for them, send teachers, make various allowances for
stock, implements, tobacco, etc., and to furnish them with a
doctor.

The Winnebagoes agreed to deliver up some of their num-
ber who had murdered white settlors. Lands wore granted by
patent to four Winnebagoes by name — two men and two
women j for what reason, does not appear in the treaty.

THE WINNEBAGOBS. 223

Five years later the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States
all their lands east of the Mississippi, and also relinquished
the right to occupy, " except for hunting," a portion of that
which they owned on the west side. For this cession and re-
linquishment they were to receive $200,000 ; part of this sum
to he expended in paying their debts, the expense of their
removal and establishment in their new homes, and the rest
to be invested by the United States Government for their
benefit.

In 1846 the "Winnebagoes were forced-to make another treaty,
by which they finally ceded and sold to the United States
" all right, title, interest, claim, and privilege to all lands here-
tofore occupied by them ; " and accepted as'their home, " to be
held as other Indian lands are held," a tract of 800,000 acres
north of St. Peter's, and west of the Mississippi. For 'this third
removal they were to be paid $190,000— $150,000 for the
knds they gave up, and $40,000 for relinquishing the hunting
privilege on lands adjacent to their own. Part of this was to
be expended in removing them, and the balance was to be " left
in trust " with the Government at five per cent, interest.

This reservation proved unsuited to them. The tribe were
restless and discontented; large numbers of them were con-
tinually roaming back to their old homes in Iowa and Wiscon-
sin, and in 1855 they gladly made another treaty with the
Government, by which they ceded back to the United States
all the land which the treaty of 1846 had given them, and took
in exchange for it a tract eighteen miles square on the Elue
Earth Eiver. The improved lands on which they had been
living, their mills and other buildings, were to be appraised
and sold to the highest bidder, and the amount expended in re-
moving them, subsisting them, and making them comfortable
in their new home. This reservation, the treaty said, should be
their "permanent home j" and as this phrase had never before
been used in any of their treaties, it is to be presumed that the

224 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

Winnebagoes took heart at hearing it. They are said to have
" settled down quietly and contentedly," and have gone to
work immediately, "ploughing, planting, and building."

The citizens of Minnesota did not take kindly to their new
neighbors. " An indignation meeting was held ; a petition to
the President signed j and movements made, the object of all
which was to oust these Indians from their dearly-purchased
homes," says the Report of the Indian Commissioner for 1855.

Such movements, and such a public sentiment on the part of
the population surrounding them, certainly did not tend to en-
courage the Winnebagoes to industry, or to give them any very
sanguine hopes of being long permitted to remain in their
" permanent home." Nevertheless they worked on, doing bet-
ter and better every year, keeping good faith with the whites
and with the Government, and trusting in the Government's
purpose and power to keep faith with them. The only serious
faults with which they could be charged were drunkenness and
gambling, and both of these they had learned of the white set-
tlers. In the latter they had proved to be apt scholars, often
beating professional gamblers at their own game.

They showed the bad effects of their repeated removals,
also, in being disposed to wander back to their old homes.
Sometimes several hundred of them would be roaming about
in Wisconsin. But the tribe, as a whole, were industrious,
quiet, always peaceable and loyal, and steadily improving.
They took hold in earnest of the hard work of farming ; some
of them who could not get either horses or ploughs actually
breaking up new land with hoes, and getting fair crops out of
it. Very soon they began to entreat to have their farms set-
tled on them individually, and guaranteed to them for their
own ; and the Government, taking advantage of this desire on
their part, made a treaty with them in 1859, by which part of
their lands were to be " allotted " to individuals in " several-
ty," as they had requested, and the rest were to be sold, the

THE WINNEBAGOES. 225

proceeds to be partly expended in improvements on their farms,
and partly to be " left in trust " with the Government. This
measure threw open hundreds of thousands of acres of land to
white settlers, and drew the belt of greedy civilization much
tighter around the Indians. Similar treaties to this had been
already made with some of the Sioux tribes and with others.
It was evident that " the surplus land occupied by the Indians
was required for the use of the increasing white population,"
and that it was " necessary to reduce the reservations."

There is in this treaty of 1859 one extraordinary provision:
" In order to render unnecessary any further treaty engage-
ments or arrangements with the United States, it is hereby
agreed and stipulated that the President, with the assent of
Congress, shall have full power to modify or change any of
the provisions of former treaties with the Winnebagoes, in
such manner and to whatever extent he may judge to be nec-
essary and expedient for their welfare and best interest."

It is impossible to avoid having a doubt whether the chiefs
and headmen of the Winnebago tribe who signed this treaty
ever heard that proviso. It is incredible that they could have
been so simple and trustful as to have assented to it.

Prospects now brightened for the Winnebagoes. With
their farms given to them for their own, and a sufficient sum
of money realized by the sale of surplus lands to enable them
to thoroughly improve the remainder, their way seemed open
to prosperity and comfort. They "entered upon farming
with a zeal and energy which gave promise of a prosperous
and creditable future."

" Every family in the tribe has more or less ground under
cultivation," says their agent. He reports, also, the minutes
of a council held by the chiefs, which tell their own story :

"When we were at Washington last winter, we asked our
Great Father to take $300,000 out of the $1,100,000, so that
we could commence our next spring's work We do not want

10

226 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

all of the $1,100,000, only sufficient to carry on our improve-
ments. This money we ask for -we request only as a loan;
and when our treaty is ratified, we want it replaced. We
want to buy cattle, horses, ploughs, and wagons; and this
money can be replaced when our lands are sold. We hope yon
will get this money : we want good farms and good houses.
Many have already put on white man's clothes, and more of us
will when our treaty is ratified.

" Father, we do not want to mate you tired of talk, but
hope you will make a strong paper, and urgent request of our
Great Father in respect to our wishes."

In 1860 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs writes: "The
Winnebagoes continue steadily on the march of improvement.

* * * The progress of the Winnebagoes in agricultural growths
is particularly marked with success. There have been raised
by individuals as high as sixty acres of wheat on a single farm.

* * * The agent's efforts have been directed to giving to each
Indian his own allotment of land. * * * Wigwams are be-
coming as scarce as houses were two years ago. * * * All In-
dians who had horses ploughed and farmed their own lands.

* * * The Indians were promised that new and comfortable
houses should be built for them. The treaty not yet being
ratified, I have no funds in my hands that could be made ap-
plicable to this purpose. * * * The greater part of the Indians
have entreated me to carry out the meaning of the commission-
er on his visit here, and the reasons for my not doing so do
not seem comprehensible to them. * * * The school is in a
flourishing condition."

In 1861 the commissioner writes that the allotment of
lands in severalty to the Winnebagoes has been " substantially
accomplished ;" but that the sales of the remaining lands have
not yet been made, owing to the unsettled condition of the
country, and therefore the funds on which the Indians were
depending for the improvements of their farms have not been

THE WINOTlBAGOm 227

paid to them. They complain bitterly that the provisions of
the treaty of 1859 have not been fulfilled. "It has been two
years and a half since this treaty was concluded," says the
agent, " and the Indians have been told from one season to
another that something would be done under it for their bene-
fit, and as often disappointed, till the best of them begin to
doubt whether anything will be done. * * * The Indians who
have had their allotments made are ' clamoring for their cer-
tificates.1 "

Drunkenness is becoming one of the serious vices of the
tribe. They are surrounded on all sides by white men who
traffic in whiskey, and who are, moreover, anxious to reduce
the Indians to as degraded a state as possible. " There are
some circumstances connected with the location of this tribe
which make it more difficult to protect them from the ravages
of liquor-selling than any other tribe. They are closely sur-
rounded by a numerous white population, and these people
feel very indignant because the Indians are settled in their
midst, and are disposed to make it as uncomfortable for them
to remain here as they can, hoping at some future time they
may be able to cause their removal."

The time was not far distant. In 1862 we find the Winne-
bagoes in trouble indeed. A ferocious massacre of white set-
tlers by the Sioux had so exasperated the citizens of Minne-
sota, that they demanded the removal of all Indians from the
State. The people were so excited that not an Indian could
step outside the limits of the reservation without the risk of
being shot at sight. The Winnebagoes had utterly refused to
join the Sioux in their attack on the whites, and had been
threatened by them with extermination in consequence of this
loyalty. Thus they were equally in danger from both whites
and Indians : their position was truly pitiable.

In the Annual Eeport of the Interior Department for 1862
the condition of things is thus described : " While it may be

228 A CBNTTTBY OP DISHONOB.

true that a few of the Winnebagoes were engaged in the atroc-
ities of the Sioux, the tribe, as such, is no more justly responsi-
ble for their acts than our Government would be for a pirate
who happened to have been bora on our territory. Notwith-
standing this, the exasperation of the people of Minnesota
appears to be nearly as great toward the Winnebagoes as to-
ward the Sioux. They demand that the Winnebagoes as well
as the Sioux shall be removed from the limits of the State.
The "Winnebagoes are unwilling to move. Yet the Minnesota
people are so excited that not a Winnebago can leave his res-
ervation without risk of being shot ; and as they have never
received their promised implements of agriculture, and the
game on their reservation is exhausted, and their arms have
been taken from them, they are starving."

Their agent writes: "These Indians have been remaining
here in a continuous state of suspense, waiting for the Govern-
ment to cause the stipulations of the treaty of 1859 to be car-
ried into operation: such has been their condition for three
years and a half, and they do not understand why it is so. * * *
The fact that a very few of the Winnebagoes were present
and witnessed, if they did not take part in, the massacre at the
Lower Sioux Agency, has caused the Winnebagoes themselves
to be universally suspected of disloyalty. * * * The hostile feel-
ings of the white people are so intense, that I am necessitated
to use extra efforts to keep the Indians upon their own lands.
I have been notified by the whites that the Indians will be
massacred if they go out of their own country ; and it is but a
few days since an Indian was killed while crossing the Missis-
sippi River, for no other reason than that he was an Indian,
and such is the state of public opinion that the murderer goes
unpunished."

As to the loyalty of the tribe, the agent says : " There is no
tribe of Indians more so." There is " no doubt of their loyal-
ty as a tribe. * * * In consequence of a threat made by the

THE WINNEBAGOES. 229

Sioux, immediately upon their outbreak, that they (the Sioux)
would exterminate the Winnebagoes unless they joined them
in a raid against the white people, the Winnebagoes have lived
in fear of an attack from the Sioux, and have almost daily
implored me for protection. * * * To further assure them, I
requested of the Governor of the State that two companies of
United States infantry be stationed here in their midst, which
has allayed their fears. * * * Notwithstanding the nearness of
the belligerent Sioux, and the unfriendly feelings of the white
people, and other unfortunate circumstances, I am confident
that my Indians will remain loyal to the last. * * * They have
been informed that, notwithstanding their fidelity to the Gov-
ernment and the people, the people of this State are memorial-
izing Congress to remove them out of the State — which, they
consider very unjust under the circumstances, for they have
become attached to this location and would not leave it will-
ingly, and think their fidelity ought to entitle them to respect
and kind treatment"

The "popular demand" of the people of Minnesota tri-
umphed. In February, 1863, Congress passed an act author-
izing the " peaceful and quiet removal of the Winnebago Indi-
ans from the State of Minnesota, and the settling of them on a
new reserve." It was determined to locate them " on the Mis-
souri River somewhere within a hundred miles of Fort Randall,
where it is not doubted they will be secure from any danger
of intrusion from whites." All their guns, rifles, and pistols
were to be taken from them, " securely boxed up," labelled
" with the names of their respective owners." The Department
impressed it on the agent in charge of the removal that it was
" absolutely necessary that no time should be lost in the em-
igrating of these Indians." The hostile Sioux were to be
removed at the same time, and to a reservation adjoining the
reservation of the Winnebagoes. The reports of the Indian
Bureau for 1863 tell the story of this removal.*
* See Appendix, Art VI.

230 A CENTUBY OF DISHONOR

The commissioner says : " The case of the Winnebagoes is
one of peculiar hardship. I am still of the opinion that this
tribe was in no manner implicated in or responsible for the
cruel and wanton outbreak on the part of the Sioux ; but its
consequences to the tribe have been as disastrous as unmerited.
In obedience to the Act of Congress, and the popular demand
of the people of Minnesota, they have been removed to a new
location upon the Missouri River, adjoining that selected for
the Sioux. Contrasting the happy homes, and the abundant
supply for all their wants which they have left behind them,
with the extreme desolation which prevails throughout the
country, including their present location, and their almost de-
fenceless state, as. against the hostile savages in their vicinity,
their present condition is truly pitiable ; and it is not surpris-
ing that they have become to some extent discouraged, and are
dissatisfied with their new homes. It cannot be disguised that
their removal, although nominally peaceable and with their
consent, was the result of the overwhelming pressure of the
public sentiment of the community in which they resided ; and
it is to be feared that it will be many years before their con-
fidence in the good faith of our Government, in its professed
desire to ameliorate and improve their condition, will be re-
stored. Their misfortunes and good conduct deserve our
sympathy."

The Act of Congress above mentioned provides for the
peaceable removal of the Indians. In its execution some of
the members of the tribe were found unwilling to leave their
homes ; and as there was neither the disposition nor the power
to compel them to accompany their brethren, they remained
upon their old reservation. The most of them are represent-
ed as having entirely abandoned the Indian habits and cus-
toms, and as being fully qualified by good conduct and oth-
erwise for civilized life. Many of them are enlisted in the
military service, and all are desirous of retaining possession

231

of the hqmes allotted to them under the provisions of their
treaty.

" The trust lands belonging to the tribe have been placed in
the market, and from the amount already sold has been realized
$82,537 62. An appraisement has also been had of the lands
of the diminished reserve, and the same will soon be placed in
the market."

In the Report of the Superintendent of the North-west Ter-
ritory for the same year is the following summing up of their
case : " The case of these Winnebago Indians is one of peculiar
hardship. Hurried from their comfortable homes in Minnesota,
in 1863, almost without previous notice, huddled together on
steamboats with poor accommodations, and transported to
the Crow Creek Agency in Dakota Territory at an expense to
themselves of more than $50,000, they were left, after a very
imperfect and hasty preparation of their new agency for their
reception, upon a sandy beach on the west bank of the Mis-
souri River, in a country remarkable only for the rigors of its
winter climate and the sterility of its soil, to subsist them-
selves where the most industrious and frugal white man would
fail, five years out of six, to raise enough grain upon which to
subsist a family. The stern alternative was presented to this
unfortunate people, thus deprived of comfortable homes (on
account of no crime or misdemeanor of their own), of abandon-
ing this agency, or encountering death from cold or starvation.
They wisely chose the former; and after encountering hard-
ships and sufferings too terrible to relate, and the loss of sev-
eral hundred of their tribe by starvation and freezing, they
arrived at their present place of residence [the Omaha Agen-
cy] in a condition which excited the active sympathy of all
who became acquainted with the story of their wrongs. There
they have remained, trusting that the Government would re-
deem its solemn promise to place them in a position west of
the Missouri which should be as comfortable as the one which
they occupied in Minnesota.

232 A CENTURY OP DISHONOB,

" This tribe is characterized by frugality, thrift, and industry
to an extent unequalled by any other tribe of Indians in the
North-west. Loyal to the Government, and peaceable toward
their neighbors, they are entitled to the fostering care of the
General Government. The improvement of the homes which
they have voluntarily selected for their future residence will
place them in a short time beyond the reach of want, and take
from the Government the burden of supplying their wants at
an actual expense of $100,000."

It was in May, 1863, that the Winnebagoes gathered at Fort
Snelling, ready for their journey. The chiefs are said to have
" acquiesced in the move as a matter of necessity, for the pro-
tection of their people," but some of them "actually shed
tears on taking leave," Colonel Mix, who was in charge of
this removal, wrote to Washington, urgently entreating that
tents at least might be provided for them on their arrival at
their new homes in the wilderness. He also suggests that it is
a question whether they ought to be settled so near the hostile
Sioux, especially as just before leaving Minnesota some of the
tribe had " scalped three Sioux Indians, thinking it would pro-
pitiate them in the kind regards of their Great Father at Wash-
ington, and, as a consequence, they would perhaps be permitted
to remain in Minnesota."

The removal was accomplished in May and Juno. There
were, all told, 1945 of the Winnebagoes. They arrived to find
themselves in an almost barren wilderness — a dry, hard soil,
" too strong for ploughs ;" so much so, that it was " difficult to
get a plough to run a whole day without breaking." A drought
had parched the grass, so that in many places where the previ-
ous year several tons of good hay to an acre had been raised
there was not now " pasturage for a horse." The cottonwool
timber, all which could be procured, was " crooked, difficult to
handle, full of wind-shakes, rots, etc." The channel of the Mis-
souri River here was so " changeable," and the banks so low,

THB WINNEBAGOXS. 233

that it was " dangerous to get too near." They were obliged
therefore to settle half a mile away from the river. No won-
der that on July 1st the Winnebagoes are reported as "not
pleased with their location, and anxious to return to Minnesota,
or to some other place among the whites." They gathered to-
gether in council, and requested Superintendent Thompson to
write to their Great Father for permission " to move among
the whites again. * * * They have lived so long among the
whites that they are more afraid of wild Indians than the
whites are." The superintendent hopes, however, they will be
more contented as soon as he can get them comfortable build-
ings. But on July 16th we find Brigadier-general Sulley, com-
mander of the North-western expedition against Indians, writ-
ing to the Department in behalf of these unfortunate creatures.
General Sulley having been detained in camp near Crow Creek
on account of the low water, the chiefs had gone to him with
their tale of misery. "They stated that nothing would grow
here. They dare not go out to hunt for fear of other tribes,
and they would all starve to death. This I believe to be true,
without the Government intends to ration them all the time.
The land is sandy, dry, and parched up. * * * The land is poor ;
a low, sandy soil. I don't think you can depend on a crop of
corn even once in five years, as it seldom rains here in the sum-
mer. * * * I find them hard at work making canoes, with the
intention of quitting the agency and going to join the Omahas
or some other tribe down the river. They said they had been
promised to be settled on the Big Sioux Eiver. * * * I told
them they must stay here till they get permission from "Wash-
ington to move ; that, if they attempted it, they would be fired
on by my troops stationed down the river."

This is a graphic picture of the condition of a band of two
thousand human beings, for whose "benefit" $82,537 62 had
just been realized from sale of their lands by the Govern-
ment, to say nothing of the property they owned in lands yet

aa*

234 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

unsold, and in annuity provisions of previous treaties to the
amount of over $1,000,000 capital I Is not their long suffer-
ing, their patience, well-nigh incredible ?

Spite of the dread of being fired on by the United States
troops, they continued to make canoes and escape in them from
this " new home " in the desert, and in October the Depart-
ment of the Interior began to receive letters containing para-
graphs like this : "I have also to report that small detachments
of Winnebagoes are constantly arriving in canoes, locating on
our reserve, and begging for food to keep them from starv-
ing."— Agent for Omaha Agency.

These are the men who only one year before had been liv-
ing in comfortable homes, with several hundred acres of good
ground under cultivation, and " clamoring for certificates " of
their " allotted " farms — now shelterless, worse than homeless,
escaping by canoe-loads, under fire of United States soldiers,
from a barren desert, and "clamoring" for food at Indian
agencies !

The Department of the Interior promptly reports to the Su-
perintendent of Indian Affairs in Minnesota this " information,"
and calls it " astounding." The Department had " presumed
that Agent Balcombe would adopt such measures as would in-
duce the Winnebagoes to remain upon their reservation," and
had " understood that ample arrangements had been made for
their subsistence." It, however, ordered the Omaha agent to
feed the starving refugees till spring, and it sent word to those
still remaining on the reservation that they must not "under-
take to remove without the consent of their Great Father, as it
is his determination that a home that shall be healthy, pleasant,
and fertile, shall be furnished to them at the earliest practicable
moment."

This was in the autumn of 1863. In one year no less than
1222 of the destitute Winnebagoes had escaped and made
their way to the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska. Here the

THE WINNEBAGOES. 235

Superintendent of the Northern Superintendency held a coun-
cil with them.

" They expressed," he says, " a strong desire to have some
arrangement made by which they would be allowed to occupy
a portion of that reservation. It was represented that the
Omahas wished it also. * * * I found that I could not gain
their consent to go back to their reservation, and I had no
means within my reach of forcing them back, even if I had
deemed it proper to do so." The superintendent recommended,
therefore, that they be subsisted where they were " until some
arrangement be made for their satisfaction, or some concert of
action agreed upon between the War Department and the In-
terior Department by which they can be kept on their reser-
vation after they shall have been moved there."

In September of this same year the agent for the Winne-
bago Keserve wrote that the absence of a protecting force had
been one of the reasons of the Indians leaving in such num-
bers. " Both the Winnebagoes and Sioux who have stayed here
have lived in fear and trembling close to the stockade, and have
refused to separate and live upon separate tracts of land."

He gives some further details as to the soil and climate.
" The region has been subject, as a general rule, to droughts,
and the destructive visits of grasshoppers and other insects.
The soil has a great quantity of alkali in it ; it is an excessive-
ly dry climate ; it very seldom rains, and dews are almost un-
known here : almost destitute of timber. * * * It is generally
supposed that game is plenty about here. This is an errone-
ous impression. There are but a very few small streams, an
entire absence of lakes, and an almost entire destitution of tim-
ber— the whole country being one wilderness of dry prairie for
hundreds of miles around ; hence there is but a very h'ttle
small 'game, fish, or wild fruit to be found. In former times
. the buffalo roamed over this country, but they have receded,
and very seldom come here in any numbers. * * * The Indiana

236 A CENTUBY OP DISHONOR.

must have horses to hunt them : horses they have not. The
Winnebagoes had some when they first arrived, but they \vere
soon stolen by the hostile Sioux."

Agent Balcombe must have led a hard life on this reserva-
tion. Exposed to all the inconveniences of a remote frontier,
three hundred miles from any food-raising country ; receiving
betters from the Interior Department expressing itself " astound-
ed " that he does not " induce the Indians in his charge to re-
main on their reservation ;" and letters from citizens, and peti-
tions from towns in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebras-
ka, imploring him to " gather up " all the wandering Winne-
bagoes who have been left behind ; unprovided with any proper
military protection, and surrounded by hostile Indians — no
wonder that he recommends to the Government " to remove
and consolidate " the different tribes of Indians into " one ter-
ritory " as soon as possible.

The effects of this sojourn in the wilderness upon the Win-
nebagoes were terrible. Not only were they rendered spiritless
and desperate by sufferings, they were demoralized by being
brought again into conflict with the wild Sioux. They had
more than one skirmish with them, and, it is said, relapsed so
far into the old methods of their barbaric life that at one of
their dances they actually roasted and ate the heart of a Sioux
prisoner ! Yet in less than a year^ after they were gathered to-
gether once more on the Omaha Reservation, and began again
to have hopes of a " permanent home," we find their chiefs and
headmen sending the following petition to Washington :

"OuR GREAT FATHER AT WASHINGTON, ALL GREETING, —
From the chiefs, braves, and headmen of your dutiful children
the Winnebagoes.

" Father, we cannot see you. You are far away from us.
We cannot speak to you. We will write to you ; and, Father,
we hope you will read our letter and answer us.

THE WIN3TEBAGOES. 237

" Father : Some years ago, when we had our homes on
Turkey River, we had a school for our children, where many of
them learned to read and write and work like white people, and
we were happy.

"Father: Many years have passed away since our school
was broken up ; we have no such schools among us, and our
children are growing up in ignorance of those things that
should render them industrious, prosperous, and happy, and
we are sorry. Father : It is our earnest wish to be so situated
no longer. It is our sincere desire to have again established
among us such a school as we see in operation among your
Omaha children. Father : As soon as you find a permanent
home for us, will you not do this for us ? And, Father, as we
would like our children taught the Christian religion, as before,
we would like our school placed under the care of the Presby-
terian Board of Foreign Missions. And last, Father, to show
you our sincerity, we desire to have set apart for its establish-
ment, erection, and support, all of our school-funds and what-
ever more is necessary.

" Father : This is our prayer. Will not you open your ears
and heart to us, and write to us?"

This letter was signed by thirty-eight of the chiefs and head-
men of the Winnebagoes.

In March, 1865, a new treaty was made between the Unit-
ed States and this long-suffering tribe of Indians, by which, in
consideration of their " ceding, selling, and conveying " to the
United States all their right in the Dakota Reserve, the United
States agreed " to set apart for the occupation and future home
of the Winnebago Indians forever" a certain tract of 128,000
acres in Nebraska — a part of the Omaha Reservation which the
Omahas were willing to sell. The United States also agreed to
erect mills, break land, furnish certain amounts of seeds, tools,
guns, and horses, oxen and wagons, and to subsist the tribe for

238 A CENTUEY OP DISHONOR.

one year, as some small reparation for the terrible losses and
sufferings they had experienced. From this word " forever "
the Winnebagoes perhaps toot courage.

At the time of their removal from Minnesota, among the
fugitives -who fled back to "Wisconsin was the chief De Carry.
He died there, two years later, in great poverty. He was very
old, but remarkably intelligent ; he was the grandson of Ho*
po-ko-e-kaw, or " Glory of the Morning," who was the queen
of the Winnebagoes in 1776, when Captain Carver visited
the tribe. There is nothing in Carver's quaint and fascinating
old story more interesting than his account of the Winnebaga
country. He stayed with them four days, and was entertain-
ed by them " in a very distinguished manner." Indeed, if we
may depend upon Captain Carver's story, all the North-western
tribes were, in their own country, a gracious and hospitable
people. He says : " I received from every tribe of them the
most hospitable and courteous treatment, and am -convinced
that, till they are contaminated by the example and spirituous
liquors of their more refined neighbors, they will retain this
friendly and inoffensive conduct toward strangers."

He speaks with great gusto of the bread that the Winne-
bago women made from the wild maize. The soft young
kernels, while full of milk, are kneaded into a paste, the cakes
wrapped in bass-wood leaves, and baked in the ashes. " Better
flavored bread I never ate in any country," says the honest
captain.

He found the Winnebagoes' home truly delightful. The
shores of the lake were wooded with hickory, oak, and hazel.
Grapes, plums, and other fruits grew in abundance. The lake
abounded in fish; and in the fall of the year with geese, ducks,
and teal, the latter much better flavored than those found near-
er the sea, as they " acquire their excessive fatness by feeding
on the wild rice which grows so plentifully in these parts."

How can we bear to contrast the picture of this peace,

THE WINNEBAGOBS. 239

plenty, and gracious hospitality among the ancient Winneba-
goes with the picture of their descendants — only two gener-
ations later — hunted, driven, starved ? And how can we bear
to contrast the picture of the drunken, gambling Winnebago
of Minnesota with this picture which Captain Carver gives of
a young Winnebago chief with whom he journeyed for a few
days?

Captain Carver, after a four days' visit with the Winneba-
goes, and " having made some presents to the good old queen,
and received her blessing," went on his way. Two months
later, as he was travelling to the Falls of St. Anthony, he en-
countered a young Winnebago chief going on an embassy to
some of the bands of the " Nadouwessies" (Sioux). This young
chief, finding that Captain Carver was about to visit the Falls,
agreed to accompany him, " his curiosity having been often ex-
cited by the accounts he had received from some of his chiefs.
He accordingly left his family (for the Indians never travel with-
out their households) at this place under charge of my Mohawk
servant, and we proceeded together by land, attended only by
my Frenchman, to this celebrated place. We could distinctly
hear the noise of the water full fifty miles before we reached
the Falls ; and I was greatly pleased and surprised when I ap-
proached this astonishing work of nature ; but I was not long
at liberty to indulge these emotions, my attention being called
off by the behavior of my companion. The prince had no
sooner gained the point that overlooks this wonderful cascade
than he began with an audible voice to address the Great Spir-
it, one of whose places of residence he imagined this to be.
He told him that he had come a long way to pay his adora-
tions to him, and now would make him the best offerings in
his power. He accordingly threw his pipe into the stream;
then the roll that contained his tobacco ; after these the brace-
lets he wore on his arms and wrists ; next an ornament that en-
circled his neck, composed of beads and wires ; and at last the

240 A CBNTTTEY OF DISHONOR.

ear-rings from his ears ; in short, he presented to his god every
part of his dress that was valuable. Daring this he frequently
smote his breast with great violence, threw his arms about, and
appeared to be much agitated. All this while he continued
his adorations, and at length concluded them with fervent pe-
titions that the Great Spirit would constantly afford us his pro-
tection on our travels, giving us a bright sun, a blue sky, and
clear, untroubled waters ; nor would he leave the place till we
had smoked together with my pipe in honor of the Great
Spirit,

" I was greatly surprised at beholding an instance of such
elevated devotion in so young an Indian. * * * Indeed, the whole
conduct of this young prince at once charmed and amazed me.
During the few days we were together his attention seemed to
be totally employed in yielding me every assistance in his
power, and even in so short a time he gave me innumerable
proofs of the most generous and disinterested friendship, so
that on our return I parted from him with the greatest re-
luctance."

In 1866 the report from the Winnebagoes is that they are
" improving ;" manifest " a good degree of industry ;" that the
health of the tribe is generally poor, but " as good as can be
expected when we remember their exposures and sufferings
during the last three years." The tribe has " diminished some
four or five hundred since they left Minnesota." One hun-
dred soldiers have returned, " who have served with credit to
themselves and to their tribe in the defence of their country."
No school has yet been established on the agency, and this is
said to be " their greatest want."

The superintendent writes : " The appropriations under the
late treaty have all been made, and the work of fitting up the
reservation is progressing. It affords me the highest personal
satisfaction to assure the Department that this deeply-wronged
and much-abused tribe will soon be in all respects comfortable

THE W1NNEBAGOHS. 241

and self-sustaining. They entered upon their new reservation
late last May, and during the present year they have raised at
least twenty thousand bushels of corn."

In 1867 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs says: "The
Winnebagoes have a just claim against the Government on ac-
count of their removal from Minnesota, the expenses of which
were borne out of their own tribal funds. The -Government is
clearly bound in all honor to refund to them moneys thus
expended."

It would seem that there could have been no question in the
beginning as to who should pay the costs of such a removal as
that. It should not even have been a tax on the general Gov-
ernment, but on the State of Minnesota, which demanded it —
especially as there was no shadow of doubt that the demand
was made — not because the citizens of Minnesota had any real
fear of the peaceable and kindly Winnebagoes (who were as
much in terror of the Sioux as they were themselves), but be-
cause they "coveted the splendid country the Winnebagoes
were occupying, and the Sioux difficulties furnished the pretext
to get rid of them with the aid of Congressional legislation."

Some members of the tribe who remained in Minnesota
still claimed their " allotted " lands ; " their share of all moneys
payable to the Winnebagoes under treaty stipulations, and that
their share of the funds of the tribe be capitalized and paid to
them in bulk ; their peculiar relations as Indians be dissolved,
and they left to merge themselves in the community where
they have cast their lot." The commissioner urges upon the
Government compliance with these requests.

In 1868 a school was opened on the Winnebago Agency,
and had a daily attendance of one hundred and fifty scholars.
The tribe adopted a code of laws for their government, and
the year was one of peace and quietness, with the exception
of some dissatisfaction on the part of the Indians in regard to
three hundred cows, which, having been sent to the agency in

242 A CENTURY OF DISHOHOB.

fulfilment of one of the provisions of the treaty, were neverthe-
less ordered by the Indian Bureau to be "kept as Department
stock." The Indians very naturally held that they had a right
to these cows ; nevertheless, they continued peaceable and con-
tented, in the feeling that they had " at last found a home,"
where they might " hope to remain and cultivate the soil with
the feeling that it is theirs, and that their children will not in
a few days be driven from their well -tilled and productive
lands." They are, however, " growing exceedingly anxious for
the allotment of their lands in severalty."

In 1869 "preparations" were "being made for allotting the
lands to heads of families."

In 1870 " the allotment of land in severalty to the Indians has
been nearly completed, each head of a family receiving eighty
acres. * * * The Indians anxiously look for the patents to these,
as many have already commenced making improvements. * * *
At least thirty have broken four acres of prairie apiece, and
several have built houses. * * * Three schools are in operation,
and four hundred acres of ground under cultivation."

In this year comes also an interesting report fronf the stray
"Winnebagoes left behind in "Wisconsin. They and the stray
Pottawottomies who are in the same neighborhood are " re-
markably quiet and inoffensive, giving no cause of complaint ;
on the contrary, the towns and villages where they trade their
berries, maple-sugar, etc., are deriving considerable benefit from
them : a number have been employed in lumbering, harvesting,
and hop -picking. A number of mill- owners and lumbermen
have informed me that the Indians they have employed in their
business have been steady, good hands. * * * There are near-
ly one thousand of these Winnebagoes. Some of them have
bought land; others are renting it; and all express an anxiety
that the 'Great Father' should give them a reservation in this
region, and allow them to remain."

In 1871 the Nebraska Winnebagoes deposed their old chiefs,

THE WINNEBAGOES. 243

and elected twelve new ones, to serve one year; these were
mainly from the younger members of the tribe who were in
favor of civilization and progress. This was an important step
toward breaking up the old style of tribal relations.

In 1872 we hear again from the " strays " in Wisconsin. The
whites having complained of them, Congress has appropriated
funds to move them to their respective tribes " west of the Mis-
sissippi ;" but the removal has not been undertaken " for various
reasons," and the commissioner doubts " whether it can be ac-
complished without additional and severe legislation on the
part of Congress, as the Indians are attached to the country,
and express great repugnance to their contemplated removal
from it."

The poor creatures are not wanted anywhere. Spite of
their being " steady, good hands " for hired labor, and useful
to towns and villages in furnishing fruits and fish, the Wisconsin
people do not want them in their State. And the agent of the
Winnebago Reservation writes, earnestly protesting against their
being brought there. He thinks they are in moral tone far
below the Indians under his charge. Moreover, he says " the
prejudice in the surrounding country is such" that he believes
it would be bad policy to remove any "more Indians" there.
Nebraska does not like Indians any better than Wisconsin does,
or Minnesota did. He adds also that his Indians " would be
greatly stimulated to improve their claims if they could secure
the titles for them. They have waited three years since the
first allotments were made. It is difficult to make them be-
lieve that it requires so long a time to prepare the patents, and
they are beginning to fear that they are not coming."

In 18*73 the Winnebagoes are cited as a " striking example
of what can be accomplished in a comparatively short time in
the way of civilizing and Christianizing Indians. * * * Their
beautiful tract of country is dotted over with substantially-
built cottages ; the farmers own their wagons, horses, harness,

244 A CBNTUEY OP DISHONOE,

furniture of their houses — dress in civilized costume, raise
Cr0ps — and several hundred Winnebago men assisted the farm-
ers in adjoining counties during the late harvest in gathering
their grain crop, and proved themselves efficient and satisfac-
tory workmen."

In the winter of 1874 the Wisconsin "strays" were moved
down to the Nebraska Reservation. They were discontented,
fomented dissatisfaction in the tribe, and in less than a year
more than half of them had wandered back to Wisconsin
again; a striking instance of the differences in the Govern-
ment's methods of handling different bands of Indians. The
thirty Poncas who ran away from Indian Territory were pur-
sued and arrested, as if they had been thieves escaping with
stolen property ; but more than five hundred Winnebagoes, in
less than one year, stroll away from their reserve, make their
way back to Wisconsin, and nothing is done about it.

In 1875 there are only two hundred and four of the Wiscon-
sin " strays " left on the Nebraska Reservation. All the others
are " back in their old haunts, where a few seem to be making
a sincere effort to take care of themselves by taking land under
the Homestead Act"

The Nebraska Winnebagoes are reported as being " nearly
civilized ;" all are engaged in civilized pursuits, " the men work-
ing with their own hands, and digging out of the ground three-
fourths of their subsistence." They have raised in this year
20,000 bushels of corn, 5800 bushels of wheat, and 6000 bush-
els of oats and vegetables. They have broken 800 acres of
new land, and have built 3000 rods of fencing. Nearly one-
sixth of the entire tribe is in attendance at schools. The sys-
tem of electing chiefs annually works well ; the chiefs, in their
turn, select twelve Indians to serve for the year as policemen,
and they prove efficient in maintaining order.

What an advance in six years ! Six years ago there were but
twenty-three homes and only 300 acres of land under cultiva-

THE WEffKEBAGOES. 245

tion on the whole reservation; the people were huddled to-
gether in ravines and bottom-lands, and were dying of disease
and exposure.

In 1876 the Winnebagoes are reported again as "fast emerg-
ing from a condition of dependence upon their annual appro-
priations. * * * Each head of a family has a patent for eighty
acres of land. Many have fine farms, and are wholly support
ing themselves and families by their own industry. * * * The
issue of rations has been discontinued, except to the Wisconsin
branch of the tribe and to the sick-list."

In what does this report differ from the report which would
be rendered from any small farming village in the United
States? The large majority "wholly supporting themselves
and their families by their own industry ;" a small minority of
worthless or disabled people being fed by charity — i. e., being
fed on food bought, at least in part, by interest money due on
capital made by sales of land in which they had a certain reck-
onable share of ownership. Every one of the United States has
in nearly every county an almshouse, in which just such a class
of worthless and disabled persons will be found; and so crowded
are these almshouses, and so appreciable a burden is their sup-
port on the tax-payers of State and county, that there are per-
petual disputes going on between the authorities of neighbor-
ing districts as to the ownership and responsibility of individ-
ual paupers: for the paupers in civilized almshouses are never
persons who have had proceeds of land sales " invested " for
their benefit, the interest to be paid to them " annually for-
ever." It is for nobody's interest to keep them paupers, or to
take care of them as sucb.

We now find the Winnebagoes once more quietly established
in comfortable homes — as they were, in their own primitive
fashion, in 1822, when Dr. Morse visited them on the shores
of their beautiful lake ; as they were, after our civilized fash-
ion, in 1862, on the healthful and fertile up-lands of Minne-

246 A CENTUEf OP

sota. In their present home they seem to have reason, at last,
to feel secure, to anticipate permanence, safety, and success.
Their lands have been allotted to them in severalty : each head
of a family has his patent for eighty acres. They are, in the
main, self-supporting.

How does the United States Government welcome this suc-
cess, this heroic triumph of a patient people over disheartening
obstacles and sufferings?

In the Annual Eeport of the Secretary of the Interior for
1876 the Secretary says: "As a matter of economy, the great-
est saving could be made by uniting all the Indians upon a few
reservations ; the fewer, the better." He says that there is land
enough in the Indian Territory to give every Indian — man,
woman, and child — in the country seventy-five acres apiece. He
says, "The arguments are all in favor of the consolidation."
He then goes on to enumerate those arguments : " Expensive
agencies would be abolished; the Indians themselves can be
more easily watched over and controlled ; evil-designing men
be the better kept away from them, and illicit trade and barter
in arms and ammunition and whiskey prevented. Goods could
he supplied at a greater saving ; the military service relieved ;
the Indians better taught, and friendly rivalry established among
them — those most civilized hastening the progress of those be-
low them ; and most of the land now occupied as reserves re-
verting to the General Government, would be open to entry and

Here are nine reasons given for removing all Indians to In-
dian Territory. Five of these reasons ostensibly point to bene-
fits likely to accrue from this removal to the Indians. The
other four point to benefits likely to accrue to the Govern-
ment ; the first three of these last are, simply, " saving ;" the
fourth is the significant one, "gain" — "most of the land re-
verting to the General Government would be open to entry and
sale."

THE WINNEBAGOES. 24?

It was before this necessity of opening Indian lands " to en-
try and sale" that the Winnebagoes had been fleeing, from
1815 to 1863. It seems they are no safer now. There is evi-
dently as much reason for moving them out of Nebraska as
there was for moving them out of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The Secretary goes on to say: "As soon as the Indian is
taught to toil for his daily bread, and realize the sense of pro-
prietorship in the results of his labor, it cannot but be further
to his advantage to be able to appreciate that his labor is ex-
pended upon his individual possessions and for his personal
benefit. * * * The Indian must be made to see the practical ad-
vantage to himself of his work, and feel that he reaps the full
benefit of it. Everything should teach him that he has a home ;
* * * a hearth-stone of his own, around which he can gather his
family, and in its possession be entirely secure and independent."

The logical relation of these paragraphs to the preceding one
is striking, and the bearing of the two together on the case of
the Winnebagoes is still more striking.

In the same report the Commissioner for Indian Affairs
says : "If legislation were secured giving the President author-
ity to remove any tribe or band, or any portion of a tribe or
band, whenever in his judgment it was practicable, to any one
of the reservations named, and if Congress would appropriate
from year to year a sum sufficient to enable him to take advan-
tage of every favorable opportunity to make such removals, I
am confident that a few years' trial would conclusively demon-
strate the entire feasibility of the plan. I believe that all the
Indians in Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, and a part at least
of those in Wyoming and Montana, could be induced to re*
move to the Indian Territory."

He adds " that the Indian sentiment is opposed to such re-
moval is true," but he thinks that, " with a fair degree of per-
sistence,'' the removal " can be secured." No doubt it can.

Later in the same report, under the head of " Allotments in

248 A OBNTUEY OF DISHONOR.

Severally," he says : " It is doubtful whether any high degree
of civilization is possible without individual ownership of land.
The records of the past, and the experience of the present, tes-
tify that the soil should be made secure to the individual by
all the guarantees which law can devise, and that nothing less
will induce men to put forth their best exertions. It is essen-
tial that each individual should feel that his home is his own ;
* * * that he has a direct personal interest in the soil on which
he lives, and that that interest will be faithfully protected for
him and for his children by the Government."

The commissioner and the secretary who wrote these clear
statements of evident truths, and these eloquent pleas for the
Indians' rights, both knew perfectly well that hundreds of In-
dians had had lands " allotted to them " in precisely this way,
and had gone to work on the lands so allotted, trusting " that
that interest would be faithfully protected by the G-overn-
ment;" and that these "allotments," and the "certificates" of
them, had proved to be good for nothing as soon as the citizens
of a State united in a "demand" that the Indians should be
moved. The commissioner and the secretary knew perfectly
well, at the time they wrote these paragraphs, that in this one
Winnebago tribe in Nebraska, for instance, " every head of a
family owned eighty acres of land," and was hard at work on
it — industrious, self-supporting, trying to establish that " hearth-
stone " around which, as the secretary says, he must " gather
his family, and in its possession be entirely secure and inde-
pendent." And yet the secretary and the commissioner advise
the moving of this Winnebago tribe to Indian Territory with
the rest : " all the Indians in Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota "
could probably be " induced to move," they say.

These quotations from this report of the Interior Department
are but a fair specimen of the velvet glove of high-sounding
phrase of philanthropic and humane care for the Indian, by
which has been most effectually hid from the sight of the

THE TVINNEBAGOES. 249

American people the iron hand of injustice and cruelty which
has held him for a hundred years helpless in its grasp.

In this same year an agent on one of the Nehraska agencies
writes feelingly and sensibly :

" Nothing has tended to retard the progress of this tribe in
the line of opening farms for themselves so much as the unset-
tlement occasioned by a continued agitation of the subject of
selling their reservation and the removal of the tribe. * * * The
improvement that has been made at this agency during the
past three years in the direction of developing among the In-
dians the means of self-support, seems to have caused an unea-
siness that has been prolific of a great deal of annoyance, inas-
much as it has alarmed this speculative element around us with
the fear that the same (continued) will eventually plant the In-
dians on their present fertile land so firmly that they cannot
be removed, and thus they be deprived of the benefits of ma-
nipulating the sale of their reservation."

Nevertheless, the Winnebagoes keep on in their work —
building houses, school -buildings, many of them of brick
made on the ground.

In this year (1876) they experienced a great injustice in the
passing of an Act of Congress fixing the total amount to be
expended for pay of employees at any one agency at not more
than $10,000. This necessitated the closing of the fine build-
ing they had built at a cost of $20,000 for the purpose of an
industrial boarding-schooL

In this year's report their agent gives a resume of the finan-
cial condition of the tribe: " By treaty proclaimed June 16th,
1838, the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States all their
land east of the Mississippi, in consideration of which they
were to receive $1,100,000. The balance of this, after making
certain payments, was to be invested for their benefit, on which
the United States guaranteed to pay them an annual interest
of not less than five per cent.

11

250 A CEOTURY OF DISHONOR.

" The Winnebagoea receive no support from the Govern*
inent, other than from the interest appropriated annually on
what remains of these funds. This in 1870 amounted to over
$50,000. Since then the half-breeds, numbering one hundred
and sixty persons, members of the tribe remaining in Minneso-
ta at the time of the removal of the Indians from that State in
1863, have, in accordance with the provisions of the act mak-
ing appropriations for the Indian service, approved March 3d,
1871, been paid their proportion of the principal of all Winne-
bago funds, as shown on the books of the Treasury at that
time, including the proportion of $85,000, on which but five
more instalments of interest were to be paid, per fourth Arti-
cle treaty October 13th, 1846. In computing this proportion,
the whole number of the tribe considered as being entitled to
participate in the benefits of the tribal funds was 1531 ; which
number included only those located on the Winnebago reser-
vation in Nebraska at that time, in addition to the one hun-
dred and sixty already spoken of. By this Act of Congress
the Nebraska Winnebagoes, who comprise only that portion
of the tribe which has complied with treaty stipulations, and
quietly acquiesced in the demands of the Government, were
deprived of nearly one-eighth part of their accustomed support.

" Other reductions were afterward made for the purchase of
a reservation adjoining the old one in this State, and for remov-
ing to it the wandering bands of Winnebagoes in Wisconsin.
These were supposed to have numbered in all nearly one thou-
sand persons. They had not been in the habit of receiving any
attention or acknowledgment from the Government since they,
as a tribal organization, had declined to treat with it. Nearly
all of them objected to removing from Wisconsin to their new
reservation in Nebraska, and, as a natural consequence, soon
returned after being compelled to do so. At the present time
there are probably less than one hundred of the number re-
maining here. For the past three years the sum to which the

THE WINNEBAGOES. 251

Wisconsin Winnebagoes would have been entitled Lad they re-
mained on their reservation, amounting in all to $48,521 07,
has been set apart, awaiting such act of Congress as will give
relief in the premises ; thus reducing the total amount received
per annum by that portion of the tribe living on the reserva-
tion to but little more than one-half of what it was seven years
ago. It seems needless to say that they are very much dissatis-
fied at this, and that when they refer to the subject I have some
difficulty in satisfying them as to the justice of the govern-
mental policy in setting apart funds (to be expended at some
future time) for the benefit of certain individuals who persist in
absenting themselves from their reservation, while others, who
are absent but a few months, are deprived of all advantages
from issues of supplies or payments that may have been made
during their absence."

This case is a good illustration of the working of the trustee
relation between the United States Government and its wards.

In 1877 we find the Secretary of the Interior still recom-
mending that the Indians be " gradually gathered together on
smaller reservations," to the end that "greater facilities be af *
forded for civilization." He reiterates that " the enjoyment
and pride of individual ownership of property is one of the
most effective civilizing agencies," and recommends that " al-
lotments of small tracts of land should be made to the heads
of families on all reservations, to be held in severalty under
proper restrictions, so that they may have fixed homes."

The commissioner also recommends " a steady concentration
of the smaller bands of Indians on the larger reservations."
He calls- attention again to the fact that there are 58,000 square
miles in the Indian Territory " set apart for the use of Indians,
and that there they can be fed and clothed at a greatly dimin-
ished expense ; and, better than all, can be kept in obedience,
and taught to become civilized and self-supporting."

In 1878 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs reports that a

252 A CENTURY OF DISHONOE.

bill has been drawn " providing for the removal and consolida-
tion of certain Indians in the States of Oregon, Colorado, Iowa,
Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and the Territo-
ries of Washington and Dakota. * * * A reduction of twenty-
five reservations and eleven agencies will thus be effected. * * *
There will be restored to the public domain 17,642,455 acres
of land." He says that " further consolidations of like char-
acter are not only possible, but expedient and advisable. * * *
There is a vast area of land in the Indian Territory not yet oc-
cupied."

With, the same ludicrous, complacent logic as before, he pro-
ceeds to give as the reason for uprooting all these Indians from
the homes where they are beginning to thrive and take root,
and moving them again — for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or
seventh time, as it may be — the fact that, " among the most
radical defects of the policy formerly pursued with the Indians,
has been the frequent changes in their location which have
been made. * * * Permanent homes, sufficient aid to enable
them to build houses, cultivate the soil, and to subsist them
until they have harvested their first crops, will wean them en-
tirely from their old methods of life, and in the course of a
few years enable them to become entirely self-supporting. * * *
Among the more forcible arguments which can be presented
in connection with this subject is the fact that the expenses
attending the removal and consolidation of the Indians, as here-
in proposed, mil be more than met from the sale of lands va-
cated. * * * Much of the land now owned by these Indians is
valuable only for its timber, and may be sold at an appraised
value for an amount far in excess of the price fixed by law,
and yet leave a large margin of profit to the purchaser into
whose hands the lands will fall. * * * I can see no reason why
the Government should not avail itself of these facts, and in
effecting the consolidation of the Indians, and the opening of
the lands for settlement, sell the same for an amount sufficient

THE WINNEBAGOES. 253

to support the Indians in their new locations, without any act-
ual drain on the Treasury in the future. * * * The lands belong
to the Indians, and they are clearly entitled to receive the full
value of the same when sold."

In this sentence we reach the high-water mark of the soph-
istry and dishonesty of the Department's position. "The
lands belong to the Indians," but we will compel them to " re-
store to the public domain" (i. e., to give up to white 'settlers)
17,642,455 acres of them. The Indians " are clearly entitled
to receive the full value of the same when sold," but we will
compel them to expend that "full value" in removing to a
place where they do not want to go, opening new lands, build-
ing new houses, buying new utensils, implements, furniture and
stock, and generally establishing themselves, " without any act-
ual drain on the Treasury" of the United States: and the
Department of the Interior " can see no reason why the Gov-
ernment should not avail itself of these facts."

All this is proposed with a view to the benefit of the Indians.
The report goes on to reiterate the same old story that the In-
dians must have *f a perfect title to their lands;" that they have
come to feel that they are at any time liable to be moved,
" whenever the pressure of white settlers upon them may create
a demand for their lands," and that they " decline to make any
improvements on their lands, even after an allotment in sever-
alty has been made, until they have received their patents for
the same," and that even " after the issue of patents the diffi-
culties surrounding them do not cease." Evidently not, since,
as we have seen, it is now several years since every head of a
family among these Winnebagoes, whose "removal" the com-
missioner now recommends, secured his "patent" for eighty
acres of land.

Finally, the commissioner says : " Every means that human
ingenuity can devise, legal or illegal, has been resorted to for
the purpose of obtaining possession of Indian lands," Of this

254 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

there would seem to be left no doubt in the mind of any Intel-
ligent person, after reading the above quotations.

It is not to be wondered that when the news of such schemes
as these reaches the Indians on their reservations great alarm
and discontent are the result. We find in the reports from
the Nebraska agencies for this year unmistakable indications
of disheartenment and anxiety. The Winnebagoes are report-
ed to be very anxious to be made citizens. A majority are in
favor of it, " provided the Government will adopt certain meas-
ures which they consider necessary for the care and protection
of their property."

They have had a striking illustration of the disadvantage of
not being citizens, in an instance of the unpunished murder of
one of their number by a white man. The story is related by
the agent tersely and well, and is one of the notable incidents
in the history of the relation between the United States Gov-
ernment and its wards.

" Henry Harris, a Winnebago in good standing, an indus-
trious man and a successful farmer, was employed by Joseph
Smith, a white man, to cut wood on his land in Dakota Coun-
ty, a short distance north of the reservation. While alone and
thus engaged, on the 29th of last January, Harris was shot
through the heart with a rifle-ball. I had his dead body taken
before the coroner of the county, and at the inquest held be-
fore that officer it was shown, to the satisfaction of the jury
that rendered a verdict in accordance therewith, that the In-
dian came to his death at the hands of one D. Balinska, who
had been for many years leading a hermit's life on a tract of
land that he owned adjoining the reservation, and who had
threatened Harris's life a few months before, when they quar-
relled about damages for corn destroyed by Balinska's horse.
There being snow on the ground at the time of the murder,
Balinska was tracked from his home to the place where, under
cover, he did the shooting ; and his shot-pouch, containing a

THE WINNEBAGOES. 255

moulded ball of the same weight as the one cut from the body
of the Indian, was found near by and identified. Notwith-
standing this direct evidence, which was laid before the Grand-
jury of Dakota County, that honorable body was unwilling to
find a ' true bill ;' for the reason, as I understand, that it was only
an Indian that was killed, and it would not be popular to incur
the expense of bringing the case to trial. This is but another
illustration of the difficulty of punishing a white man for a
wrong committed against an Indian. I need hardly say that
the Indians, when comparing this murder with that of a white
man, committed eight years ago by five of their young men —
who, upon less direct evidence, were sentenced to imprisonment
in the State Penitentiary for life — are struck with the wonder-
ful difference in the application of the same law to whites and
Indians."

The report from the Winnebago Agency for 1879 tells the
story of the sequel to this unpunished murder of Henry Har-
ris. The agent says : " In my last report I referred to the mur-
der of one of our best Indian fanners by a white man, who was
afterward arrested and discharged without trial, though there
was no question as to his guilt. As a sequel to this, one white
man is known to have been killed last May by Holly Scott, a
nephew of the murdered Indian; and another white man is
supposed to have been killed by Eddy Priest and Thomas
Walker, two young Indians who have left for Wisconsin. The
murdered white men had temporarily stopped with the Indians.
Their antecedents are unknown, and they are supposed to have
belonged to the fraternity of tramps. Holly Scott was arrested
by the Indian police, and turned over to the authorities of Da-
kota County for trial, the State Legislature having at its last
session extended the jurisdiction of that county over this reser-
vation, by what authority I am unable to say.

" The effect of these murders was to unsettle the Indians,
nearly all industry being suspended for several weeks. They

256 A CBNTUEY OF DISHONOR

feared that the white people would do as they did in Minneso-
ta in 1862, after the Sioux massacre, when the Winnebagoes
were driven from their homes in Minnesota. * * * A number
of our most quiet and industrious men became alarmed, and
moved their families to Wisconsin, encouraged in so doing by
the hope of receiving from the Government a share of the
funds which have been set apart from the annual appropriations
during the past four years for the benefit of the Wisconsin
Winnebagoes, and which they suppose aggregate a large amount
which will soon be paid in cash."

This brings the story of the Winnebagoes down to the
present time. What its next chapter may be is saddening to
think. It is said by those familiar with the Nebraska Indians -.
that, civilized though they be, they will all make war to the
knife if the attempt is made by the Government to rob them
of their present lands on the plea again of offering them a
"permanent home." That specious pretence has done its last
duty in the United States service. No Indian is left now so
imbecile as to believe it once more.

Whether the Winnebagoes' " patents " in Nebraska would,
in such a case, prove any stronger than did their " certificates "
in Minnesota, and whether the Winnebagoes themselves, peace-
able and civilized though they be, would side with the United
States Government, or with their wronged and desperate breth-
ren, in such an uprising, it would be hard to predict.

THE CHEBOKEES. 257

CHAPTER VIIL

THE CHEBOEEES.

THE Cherokees were the Eastern Mountaineers of America.
Their country lay along the Tennessee River, and in the high-
lands of Georgia, Carolina, and Alabama — the loveliest region
east of the Mississippi River. Beautiful and grand, with lofty
mountains and rich valleys fragrant with flowers, and forests of
magnolia and pine filled with the singing of birds and the mel-
ody of streams, rich in fruits and nuts and wild grains, it was
a country worth loving, worth fighting, worth dying for, as
thousands of its lovers have fought and have died, white men
as well as red, within the last hundred years.

When Oglethorpe came with his cargo of Madeira wine and
respectable paupers from England in 1733, and lived in tents
in midwinter on the shores of the Savannah River, one of the
first conditions of safety for his colossal almshouse, in shape of
a new colony, was that all the Indians in the region should be-
come its friends and allies.

The reputation of his goodness and benevolence soon pene-
trated to- the fastnesses of their homes, and tribe after tribe
sent chiefs and headmen to greet him with gifts and welcome.
When the Cherokee chief appeared, Oglethorpe said to him,
" Fear nothing. Speak freely." " I always speak freely," an-
swered the mountaineer. "Why should I fear? I am now
among friends : I never feared, even among my enemies."

The principal intention of the English trustees who incorpo-
rated the Georgia colony was to provide a home for worthy
persons in England who were "in decayed circumstances/1

258 A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

Among other great ends which they also avowed was "the
civilization of the savages." In one of Oglethorpe's first re-
ports to the trustees he says: "A little Indian nation — the only
one within fifty miles — is not only in amity, but desirous to be
subjects to his Majesty King George ; to have lands given to
them among us, and to breed their children at our schools.
Their chief and his beloved man, who is the second man in the
nation, desire to be instructed in the Christian religion."

The next year he returned to England, carrying with him
eight Indian chiefs, to show them " so much of Great Britain
and her institutions as might enable them to judge of her pow-
er and dignity. * * * Nothing was neglected," we are told, "that
was likely to awaken their curiosity or impress them with a
sense of the power and grandeur of the nation." They were
received by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by the Fellows
of Eton, and for a space of four months were hospitably en-
tertained, and shown all the great sights of London and its
vicinity.

The tribes at home were much gratified by these attentions
paid to their representatives, and sent out to the trustees a very
curious missive, expressing their thanks and their attachment
to General Oglethorpe. This letter was the production of a
young Cherokee chief. It was written in black and red hiero-
glyphs on a dressed buffalo-skin. Before it was sent to Eng-
land it was exhibited in Savannah, and the meaning of the
hieroglyphs translated by an interpreter in a grand gathering
of fifty Indian chiefs and all the principal people of Savannah.
Afterward the curious document was framed and hung up in
the Georgia Office in Westminster.

When the Wesleyan missionaries arrived in Georgia, two
years later, some of the chiefs who had made this visit to Eng-
land went to meet them, carrying large jars of honey and of
milk as gifts, to " represent their inclinations ;" and one of the
chiefs said to Mr. Wesley, " I aan glad you are come. When I

THE CHEROKEES. 259

was in England I desired that some one would speak the Great
Word to me. I will go up and speak to the wise men of our
nation, and I hope they will hear. But we would not be made
Christians as the Spaniards make Christians; we would bo
taught before we are baptized."

In those early days Wesley was an intolerant and injudicious
enthusiast. His missionary work in the Georgia Colony was
anything but successful in the outset, either among the whites
or the Indians, and there was ample justification for the reply
which this same Indian chief made later when urged to em-
brace the doctrines of Christianity.

" Why, these are Christians at Savannah. Those are Chris-
tians at Frederica. Christians get drunk ! Christians beat men !
Christians tell lies ! Me no Christian 1" On another occasion
Wesley asked him what he thought he was made for. " He
that is above," answered the chief, " knows what he made us
for. We know nothing ; we are in the dark ; but white men
know much. And yet white men build great houses, as if they
were to live forever. But white men cannot live forever. In a
little time white men will be dust as well as I."

For twenty years Oglethorpe's colony struggled on under
great difficulties and discouragements. Wars with France and
with Spain; tiresome squabbles with and among Methodist
missionaries, all combined to make Oglethorpe's position hard.
Again and again England would have lost her colony except
for the unswerving fidelity of the Indian allies; they gath-
ered by hundreds to fight for Oglethorpe. In one expedition
against the frontier, four hundred Creeks and six hundred
Cherokees set out in one day, under an urgent call for help
sent by Indian runners to their towns. His Indian friends
were the only friends Oglethorpe had who stood by him past
everything : nothing could shake their fidelity.

" He is poor ; he can give you nothing," said the St. Au-
gustine Spaniards to a Creek chief at this time ; " it is foolish

260 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

for you to go to him :" and they showed to the Indian a fine
suit of scarlet clothes, and a sword, which they were about to
give to a chief of the Tennessees who had become their ally.

But the Creek answered, " We love him. It is true, he does
not give us silver ; but he gives us everything we want that he
has. He has given me the coat off his back, and the blanket
from under him."

At last the trustees of the Georgia Colony lost patience,
very bitterly they had learned that paupers, however worthy,
are not good stuff to build new enterprises of. In eighteen
years the colony had not once furnished a sufficient supply of
subsistence for its own consumption : farms which had been
cultivated were going to ruin ; and the country was rapidly de-
generating in eveiy respect. Dishonest traders had tampered
with and exasperated the Indians, so that their friendliness
could no longer be implicitly trusted. For everything that
went wrong the English Company was held responsible, and
probably there were no happier men in all England on the 20th
of June, 1752, than were the Georgia trustees, who on that
day formally resigned their charter, and washed their hands of
the colony forever.

The province was now formed into a royal government, and
very soon became the seat of frightful Indian wars. The new
authorities neither understood nor kept faith with the Indians :
their old friend Oglethorpe had left them forever, and the same
scenes of treachery and massacre which were being enacted at
the North began to be repeated with heart-sickening similarity
at the South. Indians fighting Indians — fighting as allies to-
day with the French, to-morrow with the English; treaties
made, and broken as soon as made ; there was neither peace
nor safety anywhere.

At last, in 1*763, a treaty was concluded with the chiefs and
headmen of five tribes, which seemed to promise better things.
The Cherokees and Creeks granted to the King of England a

THE CHEEOKEES. 261

large tract of land, cleared off their debts with the sum paid fot
it, and observed its stipulations faithfully for several years, un-
til peace was again destroyed, this time by no fault of the In-
dians, in consequence of the revolt of the American Colonies
against Great Britain. The English loyalists in Georgia now
availed themselves of the Indians' old habit of allegiance to the
Crown. One of their leading agents took a Cherokee woman
as his mistress, placed her at the head of his table, gave her the
richest dress and equipage that the country could afford, and
distributed through her lavish gifts to all the Indians he could
reach. When war actually broke out he retreated with her
into the fastnesses of the Cherokee nation, where he swayed
them at his will. Attempts to capture him were repelled by
the Cherokees with ferocity. Prisoners taken by them at this
time were tortured with great cruelty ; one instance is recorded
(in a journal kept by another prisoner, who escaped alive) of a
boy about twelve years of age who was suspended by the arms
between two posts, and raised about three feet from the ground.
" The mode of inflicting the torture was by light-wood splints
of about eighteen inches long, made sharp at one end and
fractured at the other, so that the torch might not be extin-
guished by throwing it. After these weapons of death were
prepared, and a fire made for the purpose of lighting them, the
scene of horror commenced. It was deemed a mark of dexter-
ity, and accompanied by shouts of applause, when an Indian
threw one of these torches so as to make the sharp end stick
into the body of the suffering youth without extinguishing the
torch. This description of torture was continued for two hours
before the innocent victim was relieved by death."

These are sickening details, and no doubt will be instinctive-
ly set down by most readers as proof of innate cruelty peculiar
to the Indian race. Let us, therefore, set side by side with
them the record that in this same war white men (British of-
ficers) confined white men ("rebels") in prison-ships, starved,

262 A CENTUBY OP DISHONOR.

and otherwise maltreated them till they died, five or six a day,
then threw their dead bodies into the nearest marsh, and had
them "trodden down in the mud — from whence they were soon
exposed by the washing of the tides, and at low -water the
prisoners beheld the carrion-crows picking the bones of their
departed companions !" Also, that white men (British officers)
were known at that time to have made thumb-screws out of
musket-locks, to torture Georgia women, wives of " rebels," to
force them to reveal the places where their husbands were in
hiding. Innate cruelty is not exclusively an Indian trait.

The Cherokees had the worst of the fighting on the British
side during the Revolution. Again and again their towns were
burnt, their winter stores destroyed, and whole bands reduced
to the verge of starvation. At one time, when hard pressed by
the American forces, they sent to the Creeks for help ; but the
shrewd Creeks replied, " You have taken the thorns out of our
feet; you are welcome to them." The Creeks, having given
only limited aid to the British, had suffered much less severely.
That any of the Indians should have joined the " rebel " cause
seems wonderful, as they had evidently nothing to gain by the
transfer of their allegiance to what must have appeared to
them for a long time to be the losing side in the contest. For
three years and a half Savannah was in the possession of the
British, and again and again they had control of the entire
State. And to show that they had no compunction about in-
citing the Indians to massacres they left many a written record
— such, for instance, as this, which is in a letter written by
General Gage from Boston, June, 1775 : " We need not be ten-
der of calling on the savages to attack the Americans."*

The first diplomatic relations of the United States Govern-
ment with the Cherokees were in the making of the treaty of
Hopewell, in 1785. At the Hopewell council the United States

* See Appendix, Art. X,

ME CflEEOKEES. 263

commissioners said : " Congress is now the sovereign of all our
country which we now point out to you on tlio map. They
want none of your lands, nor anything else which belongs to
you ; and as an earnest of their regard for you, we propose to
enter into articles of a treaty perfectly equal and conformable
to what we now tell you. * * * This humane and generous act
of the United States will no doubt be received by you with
gladness, and held in grateful remembrance ; and the more so,
as many of your young men, and the greater number of your
warriors, during the late war, were our enemies, and assisted the
King of Great Britain in his endeavors to conquer our coun-
try."

The chiefs complained bitterly of the encroachments of white
settlers upon lands which had been by old treaties distinctly re-
served to the Cherokees. They demanded that some of these
settlers should be removed ; and when the commissioners said
that the settlers were too numerous for the Government to re-
move, one of the chiefs asked, satirically, "Are Congress, who
conquered the King of Great Britain, unable to remove those
people?"

Finally, the chiefs agreed to accept payment for the lands
which had been taken. New boundaries were established, and
a general feeling of good-will and confidence was created. One
notable feature in this council was the speech of an Indian
woman, called the " war-woman of Chota." (Chota was the
Cherokees' city of refuge. All murderers were safe so long as
they lived in Chota. Even Englishmen had not disdained to
take advantage of its shelter; one English trader who had
killed an Indian, having fled, lived there for many months, his
own house being but a short distance away. After a time he
resolved to return home, but the headmen of the tribe assured
him that, though he was entirely safe there, he would surely be
killed if he left the town.) The chief who brought this " war-
woman" to the council introduced her as "one of our beloved

264 A CENTURY OP DISHONOE.

women who has borne and raised up warriors." She proceed-
ed to say, " I am fond of hearing that there is a peace, and I
hope you have now taken us by the hand in real friendship. I
have a pipe and a little tobacco to give the commissioners to
smoke in friendship. I look on you and the red people as my
children. Your having determined on peace is most pleasing
to me, for I have seen much trouble during the late war. I am
old, but I hope yet to bear children who will grow up and peo-
ple our nation, as we are now to be under the protection of
Congress, and shall have no disturbance."

A brief summary of the events which followed on the nego*
tiation of this treaty may be best given in the words of a re-
port made by the Secretary of "War to the President four years
later. In July, 1789, General Knox writes as follows of the
Cherokees : " This nation of Indians, consisting of separate
towns or villages, are seated principally on the head-waters of
the Tennessee, which runs into the Ohio. Their hunting-
grounds extend from the Cumberland River along the frontiers
of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and part of Georgia.

" The frequent wars they have had with the frontier people
of the said States have greatly diminished their number. The
commissioners estimated them in November, 1785, at 2000
warriors, but they were estimated in 1787 at 2650; yet it is
probable they may be lessened since by the depredations com-
mitted on them.

" The United States concluded a treaty with the Cherokees
at Hopewell, on the Keowee, the 28th of November, 1785,
which is entered on the printed journals of Congress April
17th, 1786. The negotiations of the commissioners on the
part of the United States are hereunto annexed, marked A. It
will appear by the papers marked B. that the State of North
Carolina, by their agent, protested against the said treaty as in-
fringing and violating the legislative rights of that State.

"By a variety of evidence which has been submitted to the

THE CHEBOKEES. 265

last Congress, it lias been proved that the said treaty has been
entirely disregarded by the white people inhabiting the fron-
tiers, styling themselves the State of Franklin. The proceed-
ings of Congress on the 1st of September, 1788, and the proc-
lamation they then issued on this subject, will show their
sense of the many unprovoked outrages committed against the
Cherokees.

" The information contained in the papers marked C., from
Colonel Joseph Martin, the late agent to the Cherokees, and
Richard Winn, Esq., will further evince the deplorable situation
of the Cherokees, and the indispensable obligation of the United
States to vindicate their faith, justice, and national dignity.

"The letter of Mr. Winn, the late superintendent, of the
1st of March, informs that a treaty will be held with the Cher-
okees on the third Monday of May, at the Upper War-ford on
French Broad River. But it is to be observed that the time
for which both he and Colonel Joseph Martin, the agent to the
Cherokees and Chickasaws, were elected has expired, and there-
fore they are not authorized to act on the part of the Union.
If the commissioners appointed by North Carolina, South Car-
olina, and Georgia, by virtue of the resolve of Congress of the
26th of October, 1787, should attend the said treaty, their pro-
ceedings thereon may soon be expected. But, as part of the
Cherokees have taken refuge within the limits of the Creeks,
it is highly probable they will be under the same direction ;
and, therefore, as the fact of the violation of the treaty cannot
be disputed, and as the commissioners have not power to re-
place the Cherokees within the limits established in 1785, it is
not probable, even if a treaty should be held, as stated by Mr.
Winn, that the result would be satisfactory."

This is the summing up of the situation. The details of it
are to be read in copious volumes of the early history of Ten-
nessee, North and South Carolina, and Georgia — all under the
head of "Indian Atrocities." To very few who read those

266 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

records does it occur that the Indians who committed these
" atrocities " were simply ejecting by force, and, in the con-
tests arising from this forcible ejectment, killing men who had
usurped and stolen their lands — lands ceded to them by the
United States Government in a solemn treaty, of which the
fifth Article was as follows :

"If any citizen of the United States or other person, not be-
ing an Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of the lands west-
ward or southward of the said boundaries which are hereby
allotted to the Indians for their hunting-grounds, or having
already settled and will not remove from the same within six
months after the ratification of this treaty, such person shall
forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Indians
may punish him or not as they please"

It is evident that it is necessary to go back to the days of
the first treaties with our Indians to possess ourselves of the
first requisites for fair judgment of their conduct toward white
men. What would a community of white men, situated pre-
cisely as these Cherokees were, have done ? What did these
very Southern colonists themselves do to Spaniards who en-
croached on their lands? Fought them; killed them; burnt
their houses over their heads, and drove them into the sea !

In a later communication in the same year to the President,
the Secretary says : " The disgraceful violation of the treaty of
Hopewell with the Cherokees requires the serious consideration
of Congress. If so direct and manifest contempt of the au-
thority of the United States be suffered with impunity, it will
be in vain to attempt to extend the arm of the Government to
the frontiers. The Indian tribes can have no faith in such im-
becile promises, and the lawless whites will ridicule a govern-
ment which shall on paper only make Indian treaties and reg-
ulate Indian boundaries."

The President, thus entreated, addressed himself to the Sen-
ate, and asked their advice. He recapitulated the facts as set

THE CHEROKEES. 267

forth by General Knox, " that upward of five hundred fami-
lies are settled on the Cherokee lands," and asks,

" 1st. Is it the judgment of the Senate that overtures shall be
made to the Cherokees to arrange a new boundary, so as to
embrace the settlements made by the white people since the
treaty of Hopewell in November, 1785 ?

" 2d. If so, shall compensation to the amount of $ annu-
ally, or of $ in gross, be made to the Cherokees for the

land they shall relinquish, holding the occupiers of the land
accountable to the United States for its value?

" 3d. Shall the United States stipulate solemnly to guarantee
the new boundary which may be arranged ?"

The Senate thereupon resolved that the President should,
at his discretion, cause .the Hopewell treaty to be carried out,
or make a new one ; but, in case a new one was made, the
"Senate do advise and consent solemnly to guarantee the
same."

Accordingly, in July, 1791, a new treaty — the treaty of
Holston — was made with the Cherokees, new boundaries estab-
lished, and $1000 a year promised to the tribe for the lands
relinquished.

By the seventh Article of this treaty the United States " sol-
emnly guarantee to the Cherokee nation all their lands not
hereby ceded : the eighth Article reiterates the old permission
that if any citizen of the United States or other person (not an
Indian) shall settle on the Cherokees' lands, the Cherokees may
punish him as they please. Article ninth says that no citizen
or inhabitant of the United States shall hunt or destroy game
on the Cherokee lands, or go into the Cherokee country with-
out a passport from the governor or some other authorized
person.

The next year the Cherokees sent an embassy to Philadelphia
to ask for an increase of $500 in their annuity. One of the
chiefs said that he had told Governor Blunt the year before

268 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

that he would not consent to selling the lands for $1000 a
year. "It would not buy a breech-clout for each of my na-
tion ;" which was literally true.

To this additional annuity the Senate consented, and with
this the chiefs said they were " perfectly satisfied." But they
begged for the ploughs, hoes, cattle, etc., which had been prom-
ised in the treaty. They said, " Game is going fast away from
among us. We must plant corn and raise cattle, and we want
you to assist us."

In 1Y94 it was necessary to mate another treaty, chiefly to
declare that the Holston treaty was in " full force and bind-
ing." It had not been " fully carried into execution by reason
of misunderstandings," it was said. This was very true ; white
settlers had gone where they pleased, as if it did not exist ;
Cherokees had murdered them, as they were, by their treaty,
explicitly permitted to do. The whites had retaliated by
unprovoked attacks on friendly Indians, and the Indians had
retaliated again. The exasperated Indians implored Congress
to protect them : the still more exasperated whites demanded
of Congress to protect them. The Secretary of War writes
despairingly, that "The desire of too many frontier white
people to seize by force or fraud on the neighboring Indian
lands continues to be an unceasing cause of jealousy and
hatred on the part of the Indians ; and it would appear, upon
a calm investigation, that until the Indians can be quieted
on this point, and rely with confidence on the protection of
their lands by the United States, no well-grounded hope of
tranquillity can be entertained."

In this miserable manner, unjust equally to the white men
and to the Indians, affairs went on for several years, until in
1801 it became absolutely necessary that in some way a definite
understanding of boundaries, and an authoritative enforcement
of rights on both sides, should be brought about ; accordingly,
commissioners were sent by the President " to obtain the con-

THE CHEROKEES. 269

sent of the Cherokees " to new grants of land and establish-
ment of boundaries. The instructions given to these commis-
sioners are remarkable for their reiterated assertion of the In-
dians' unquestioned right to do as they please about ceding these
lands. Such phrases as these : " Should the Indians refuse to
cede to the United States any of the above-designated lands,'*
and " you will endeavor to prevail upon them to cede," and
" you will endeavor to procure the consent of the Indians," are
proof of the fulness of the recognition the United States Gov-
ernment at that time gave of the Indians' " right of occupan-
cy;1' also of the realization on the part of the Government that
these Indian nations were powers whose good-will it was of im-
portance to conciliate. " It is of importance," the instructions
say, " that the Indian nations generally should be convinced of
the certainty in which they may at all times rely upon the
friendship of the United States, and that the President will
never abandon them or their children;" and, "It will be in-
cumbent on you to introduce the desires of the Government in
such a manner as will permit you to drop them, as you may
find them illy received, without giving the Indians an opportu-
nity to reply with a decided negative, or raising in them un-
friendly and inimical dispositions. You will state none of them
in the tone of demands, but in the first instance merely mention
them as propositions which you are authorized to make, and
their assent to which the Government would consider as new
testimonials of their friendship."

Nevertheless, the Cherokees did reply with " a decided nega-
tive." They utterly refused to cede any more lands, or to give
their consent to the opening of any more roads through their
territory. Bat it only took four years to bring them to the
point where they were ready to acquiesce in the wishes of the
Government, and to make once more the effort to secure to
themselves an unmolested region, by giving up several large
tracts of land and a right of way on several roads. In 1805 they

270 A CENTUBY OF DISHONOR.

concluded another treaty, ceding territory for which the United
States thought it worth while to pay $15,000 immediately, and
an annuity of $3000.

Ten years later (in 1816) they gave up all their lands in
South Carolina, and the United States became surety that
South Carolina should pay to them $5000 for the same. In
the autumn of the same year they made still another cession of
lands to the United States Government, for which they were to
have an annuity of $6000 a year for ten years, and $5000 as
compensation for the improvements they surrendered.

In 1817 an important treaty was concluded, making still
further cessions of lands, and defining the position of a part of
the Cherokee nation which had moved away, with the Presi-
dent's permission, to the Arkansas River in 1809. The eighth
Article of this treaty promises that the United States will give
to every head of an Indian family residing on the east side of
the Mississippi, who may wish to become a citizen, " a reserva-
tion of six hundred and forty acres of land, in which they will
have a life estate, with a reversion in fee-simple to their chil-
dren."

What imagination could have foreseen that in less than
twenty years the chiefs of this Cherokee nation would be
found piteously pleading to be allowed to remain undisturbed
on these very lands? In the whole history of our Govern-
ment's dealings with the Indian tribes, there is no record so
black as the record of its perfidy to this nation. There will
come a time in the remote future when, to the student of
American history, it will seem well-nigh incredible. From the
beginning of the century they had been steadily advancing in
civilization. As far back as 1800 they had begun the manu-
facture of cotton cloth, and in 1820 there was scarcely a fam-
ily in that part of the nation living east of the Mississippi but
what understood the use of the card and spinning-wheel. Ev-
ery family had its farm under cultivation. The territory was

THE CHEROKEES. 271

laid off into districts, with a council-house, a judge, and a mar-
shal in each district. A national committee and council were
the supreme authority in the nation. Schools were flourishing
in all the villages. Printing-presses were at wort.

Their territory was larger than the three States of Massachu-
setts, Khode Island, and Connecticut combined. It embraced
the North-western part of Georgia, the North-east of Alabama,
a corner of Tennessee and of North Carolina. They were en-
thusiastic in their efforts to establish and perfect their own
system of jurisprudence. Missions of several sects were estab-
lished in their country, and a large number of them had pro-
fessed Christianity, and were li ving exemplary lives.

There is no instance in all history of a race of people pass-
ing in so short a space of tune from the barbarous stage to the
agricultural and civilized. And it was such a community as
this that the State of Georgia, by one high-handed outrage,
made outlaws! — passing on the 19th of December, 1829, a
law " to annul all laws and ordinances made by the Cherokee
nation of Indians ;" declaring " all laws, ordinances, orders, and
regulations of any kind whatever, made, passed, or enacted by
the Cherokee Indians, either in general council or in any other
way whatever, or by any authority whatever, null and void, and
of no effect, as if the same had never existed ; also, that no In-
dian, or descendant of any Indian residing within the Creek or
Cherokee nations of Indians, shall be deemed a competent wit-
ness in any court of this State to which a white man may be a
party."

What had so changed the attitude of Georgia to the Indians
within her borders i Simply the fact that the Indians, finding
themselves hemmed in on all sides by fast thickening white
settlements, had taken a firm stand that they would give up no
more land. So long as they would cede and cede, and grant
and grant tract after tract, and had millions of acres still left to
cede and grant, the selfishness of white men took no alarm ;

272 A Ci^TUJRY OJP IXLSHONOB.

but once consolidated into an empire, with fixed and inaliena-
ble boundaries, powerful, recognized, and determined, the Cher-
okee nation would be a thorn in the flesh to her white neigh-
bors. The doom of the Cherokees was sealed on the day when
they declared, once for all, officially as a nation, that they would
not sell another foot of land. This they did in an interesting
and pathetic message to the United States Senate in 1822.

Georgia, through her governor and her delegates to Congress,
had been persistently demanding to have the Cherokees com-
pelled to give up their lands. She insisted that the United
States Government should fulfil a provision, made in an old
compact of 1802, to extinguish the Indian titles within her
limits as soon as it could be peaceably done. This she de-
manded should be done now, either peaceably or otherwise.

" We cannot but view the design of those letters," says this
message, " as an attempt bordering on a hostile disposition to-
ward the Cherokee nation to wrest from them by arbitrary
means their just rights and liberties, the security of which is
solemnly guaranteed to them by these United States. * * * We
assert under the fullest authority that all the sentiments ex-
pressed in relation to the disposition and determination of the
nation never to cede another foot of land, are positively the
production and voice of the nation. * * * There is not a spot
out of the limits of any of the States or Territories thereof,
and within the limits of the United States, that they would
ever consent to inhabit ; because they have unequivocally de-
termined never again to pursue the chase as heretofore, or to
engage in wars, unless by the common call of the Government
to defend the common rights of the United States. * * * The
Cherokees have turned their attention to the pursuits of the
civilized man : agriculture, manufactures, and the mechanic arts
and education are all in successful operation in the nation at
this time ; and while the Cherokees are peacefully endeavoring
to enjoy the blessings of civilization and Christianity on the

THE CHEROKKES. 273

soil of their rightful inheritance, and while the exertions and
labors of various religious societies of these United States are
successfully engaged in promulgating to them the words of
truth and life from the sacred volume of Holy "Writ, and under
the patronage of the General Government, they are threatened
with removal or extinction. * * * We appeal to the magnanimi-
ty of the American Congress for justice, and the protection of
the rights and liberties and lives of the Cherokee people. "We
claim it from the United States by the strongest obligation
which imposes it on them — by treaties : and we expect it from
them under that memorable declaration, * that all men are cre-
ated equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer*
tain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.' "

The dignified and pathetic remonstrances of the Cherokee
chiefs, their firm reiterations of their resolve not to part with
their lands, were called by the angry Georgian governor " tricks
of vulgar cunning," and " insults from the polluted lips of out-
casts and vagabonds ;" and he is not afraid, in an official letter
to the Secretary of War, to openly threaten the President that,
if he upholds the Indians in their rejection of the overtures for
removal, the " consequences are inevitable," and that, in resist-
ing the occupation of the Cherokee lands by the Georgians, he
will be obliged to " make war upon, and shed the blood of
brothers and friends."

To these Cherokees Mr. Jefferson had written, at one time
during his administration, " I sincerely wish you may succeed
in your laudable endeavors to save the remnant of your nation
by adopting industrious occupations, and a government of reg-
ular law. In this you may always rely on the counsel and as-
sistance of the United States."

In 1791 he had written to General Knox, defining the United
States' position in the matter of Indian lands : " Government
should firmly maintain this ground, that the Indians have a

12

274 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

right to the occupation of their lands independent of the States
within whose chartered lines they happen to be; that until
they cede them hy treaty, or other transaction equivalent to
treaty, no act of a State can give a right to such lands. * * *
The Government is determined to exert all its energy for the
patronage and protection of the rights of the Indians."

And the year hefore General Washington had said to the
Six Nations: "In future you cannot be defrauded of your
lands. No State or person can purchase your lands unless at
some public treaty held under the authority of the United
States. The General Government will never consent to your
being defrauded; but it will protect you in all your just
rights. * * * You possess the right to sell, and the right of re-
fusing to sell your lands. * * * The United States will be true
and faithful to their engagements."

What could Cherokee men and women have thought when,
only thirty years later, they found this United States Govern-
ment upholding the State of Georgia in her monstrous preten-
sions of right to the whole of their country, and in her infa-
mous cruelties of oppression toward them ? when they found
this United States Government sending its agents to seduce and
bribe their chiefs to bargain away their country ; even stooping
to leave on the public records of official instructions to a com-
missioner such phrases as these: "Appeal to the chiefs and in-
fluential men — not together, but apart, at their own houses ;"
" make offers to them of extensive reservations in fee-simple,
and other rewards, to obtain their acquiescence ;" " the more
careful you are to secure from even the chiefs the official char-
acter you bear, the better;" " enlarge on the advantage of their
condition in the West: there the Government would protect
them." This the Secretary of War called " moving on them in
the line of their prejudices."

In a report submitted to the War Department in 1825 by
Thomas L. McKenney is a glowing description of the Chcro

THE CHEROKEES. 275

country and nation at that time: "The country is well watered;
abundant springs of pure water are found in every part ; a
range of majestic and lofty mountains stretch themselves across
it. The northern part is hilly and mountainous ; in the south-
ern and western parts there are extensive and fertile plains,
covered partly with tall trees, through which beautiful streams
of water glide. These plains furnish immense pasturage, and
numberless herds of cattle are dispersed over them ; horses are
plenty ; numerous flocks of sheep, goats, and swine cover the
valleys and the hills. On Tennessee, Ustanula, and Canasagi
rivers Cherokee commerce floats. The climate is delicious and
healthy ; the winters are mild ; the spring clothes the ground
with the richest scenery ; flowers of exquisite beauty and varie-
gated hues meet and fascinate the eye in every direction. In
the plains and valleys the soil is generally rich, producing In-
dian-corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, indigo, and sweet and
Irish potatoes. The natives carry on considerable trade with
the adjoining States; some of them export cotton in boats
down the Tennessee to the Mississippi, and down that river to
New Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are quite common,
and gardens are cultivated, and much attention paid to them.
Butter and cheese are seen on Cherokee tables. There are
many public roads in the nation, and houses of entertainment
kept by natives. Numerous and flourishing villages are seen
in every section of the country. Cotton and woollen cloths are
manufactured: blankets of various dimensions, manufactured
by Cherokee hands, are very common. Almost every family in
the nation grows cotton for its own consumption. Industry
and commercial enterprise are extending themselves in every
part. Nearly all the merchants in the nation are native Chero-
kees. Agricultural pursuits engage the chief attention of the
people. Different branches in mechanics are pursued. The
population is rapidly increasing. * * * "White men in the nation
enjoy all the immunities and privileges of the Cherokee people,

276 A CENTURY OP DISIIONXUS.

except that they are not eligible to public offices, * ^ * The
Christian religion is the religion of the nation. Presbyterians,
Methodists, Baptists, and Moravians are the most numerous
sects. Some of the most influential characters are members of
the Church, and live consistently with their professions. The
whole nation is penetrated with gratitude for the aid it has re-
ceived from the United States Government, and from different
religious societies. Schools are ibcreasing every year; learn-
ing is encouraged and rewarded ; the young class acquire the
English, and those of mature age the Cherokee system of learn-
ing. * * * Our relations with all nations are of the most friend-
ly character. We are out of debt, and our public revenue is in
a flourishing condition. Besides the amount arising from im-
ports, perpetual annuity is due from the United States in con-
sideration of lands ceded in former periods. Our system of
government, founded on republican principles by which justice
is equally distributed, secures the respect of the people. New
Town, pleasantly situated in the centre of the nation, and at
the junction of the Canasagi and Gusuwati, two beautiful
streams, is the seat of government The legislative power is
vested in what is denominated in native dialect Tsalagi Tini-
lawige, consisting of a national committee and council Mem-
bers of both branches are chosen by and from the people for
a limited period. In New Town a printing-press is soon to be
established ; also a national library and museum. An immense
concourse of people frequent the seat of government when the
Tsalagi Tinilawige is in session, which takes place once a
year.

" The success which has attended the philological researches
of one in the nation whose system of education has met with
universal approbation among the Cherokees certainly entitles
him to great consideration, and to rank with the benefactors of
man. His name is Guess, and he is a native and unlettered
Cherokee ; but, like Cadmus, he has given to his people the

THE CHEBOKEES. 277

alphabet of their language. It is composed of eighty-six char-
acters, by -which in a few days the older Indians, who had de-
spaired of deriving an education by means of the schools, and
who are not included in the existing school system, may read
and correspond."*

Never did mountaineers cling more desperately to their
homes than did the Cherokees. The State of Georgia put the
whole nation in duress, but*$till they chose to stay. Tear by
year high-handed oppressions increased and multiplied; mili-
tary law reigned everywhere ; Cherokee lands were surveyed,
and put up to be drawn by lottery ; missionaries were arrested
and sent to prison for preaching to Cherokees ; Cherokees were
sentenced to death by Georgia juries, and hung by Georgia
executioners. Appeal after appeal to the President and to
Congress for protection produced only reiterated confessions
of the Government's inability to protect them — reiterated pro-
posals to them to accept a price for their country and move
away. Nevertheless they clung to it. A few hundreds went,
but the body of the nation still protested and entreated. There
is nothing in history more touching than the cries of this peo-
ple to the Government of the United States to fulfil its prom-
ises to them. And their cause was not without eloquent ad-
vocates. When the bill for their removal was before Congress,
Frelinghuysen, Spragua, Bobbins, Storrs, Ellsworth, Evans,
Huntingtpn, Johns, Bates, Crockett, Everett, Test — all spoke
warmly against it ; and, to the credit of Congress be it said,
the bill passed the Senate by only one majority.

The Rev, Jeremiah Evarts published a series of papers in the
National Intelligencer under the signature of William Penn,
in which he gave a masterly analysis and summing up of the
case, recapitulated the sixteen treaties which the Government
had made with the Cherokees, all guaranteeing to them their

* See Appendix, Art IX.

278 A CENTUEY OP DISHONOR.

lands, and declared that the Government bad " arrived at the
bank of the Kubicon," where it must decide if it would or
would not save the country from the charge of bad faith.
Many of his eloquent sentences read in the light of the present
time like prophecies. He says, " in a quarter of a century the
pressure upon the Indians will be much greater from the
boundless prairies, which must ultimately be subdued and in-
habited, than it would ever have been from the borders of the
present Cherokee country;" and asks, pertinently, "to what
confidence would such an engagement be entitled, done at the
very moment that treaties with Indians are declared not to
be binding, and for the very reason that existing treaties are
not strong enough to bind the United States." Eemonstrances
poured in upon Congress, petitions and memorials from relig-
ious societies, from little country villages, all imploring the
Government to keep its faith to these people.

The Cherokees' own newspaper, The Phcenisc, was filled at
this time with the records of the nation's suffering and despair.

" The State of Georgia has taken a strong1 stand against us,
and the United States must either defend us and our rights
or leave us to our foe. In the latter case she will violate her
promise of protection, and we cannot in future depend upon
any guarantee to us, either here or beyond the Mississippi.

" If the United States shall withdraw their solemn pledges
of protection, utterly disregard their plighted faith, deprive us
of the right of self-government, and wrest from us our land,
then, in the deep anguish of our misfortunes, we may justly
say there is no place of security for us, no confidence left that
the United States will be more just and faithful toward us
in the barren prairies of the West than when we occupied the
soil inherited from the Great Author of our existence."

As a last resort the Cherokees carried their case before the
Supreme Court, and implored that body to restrain the State
of Georgia from her unjust interference with their rights.

TUB CHEBOKEES. 279

The reports of the case of the Cherokee Nation vs. the State of
Georgia fill a volume by themselves, and are of vital importance
to the history of Indian affairs. The majority of the judges
decided that an Indian trihe could not be considered as a for-
eign nation, and therefore could not bring the suit. Judge
Thompson and Judge Story dissented from this opinion, and
held that the Cherokee tribe did constitute a foreign nation, and
that the State of Georgia ought to be enjoined from execution
of its unjust laws. The opinion of Chancellor Kent coincided
with that of Judges Thompson and Story. Chancellor Kent
gave it as his opinion that the cases in which the Supreme
Court had. jurisdiction would "reach and embrace every contro-
versy that can arise between the Cherokees and the State of
Georgia or its officers under the execution of the act of Georgia."

But all this did not help the Cherokees; neither did the
fact of the manifest sympathy of the whole court with their
wrongs. The technical legal decision had been rendered
against them, and this delivered them over to the tender
mercies of Georgia : no power in the land could help them.
Fierce factions now began to be formed in the nation, one for
and one against the surrender of their lands. Many were ready
still to remain and suffer till death rather than give them up ;
but wiser counsels prevailed, and in the last days of the year
1835 a treaty was concluded with the United States by twenty
of the Cherokee chiefs and headmen, who thereby, in behalf
of their nation, relinquished all the lands claimed or possessed
by them east of the Mississippi River.

The preamble of this treaty is full of pathos: "Whereas,
The Cherokees are anxious to make some arrangement with the
Government of the United States whereby the difficulties they
have experienced by a residence within the settled parts of the
United States under the jurisdiction and laws of the State gov-
ernments may be terminated and adjusted ; and with a view
to reuniting their people in one body, and securing a perms*

280 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

nent home for themselves and their posterity in the country
selected by their forefathers without the territorial limits of
the State sovereignties, and where they can establish and enjoy
a government of their choice, and perpetuate such a state of
society as may be most consonant with their views, habits, and
condition, and as may tend to their individual comfort and
their advancement in civilization."

By this treaty the Cherokees gave up a country " larger than
the three States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connec-
ticut combined, and received therefor five millions of dollars
and seven millions of acres of land west of the Mississippi."
This the "United States " guaranteed, and secured to be convey-
ed in patent," and defined it by exact boundaries ; and, " in ad-
dition to the seven millions of acres of land thus provided for
and bounded," the United States did "further guarantee to
the Cherokee nation a perpetual outlet west, and a free and un-
molested use of all the country west of the western boundary
of said seven millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty
of the United States and their rights of soil extend."

The fifth Article of this treaty is, "The United States here-
by covenant and agree that the lands ceded to the Cherokee
nation in the foregoing article shall in no future time, without
their consent, be included within the territorial limits or juris-
diction of any State or Territory."

In the sixth Article is this promise: "The United States
agree to protect the Cherokee nation from domestic strife and
foreign enemies, and against intestine wars between the sev-
eral tribes."

Even after this treaty was made a great part of the nation
refused to sanction it, saying that it did not represent their
wish ; they would never carry it out ; hundreds refused to re-
ceive any longer either money or supplies from the United
States agents, lest they should be considered to have thereby
committed themselves to the treaty.

THE CHEEOKEES. 281

In 1837 General Wool wrote from the Cherokee country
that the people "uniformly declare that they never made the
treaty in question. * * * So determined are they in their oppo-
sition that not one of all those who were present, and voted in
the council held but a day or two since at this place, however
poor or destitute, would receive either rations or clothing from
the United States, lest they might compromise themselves in
regard to the treaty. These same people, as well as those in
the mountains of North Carolina, during the summer past pre-
ferred living on the roots and sap of trees rather than receive
provisions from the United States. Thousands, I have been
informed, had no other food for weeks."

For two years — to the very last moment allowed them by
the treaty — they clung to their lands, and at last were removed
only _by. military Jfo£ce._jTn May, 1838, General 'Stfott-ivas-or^
dered to go with a sufficient military force to compel the re-
moval. His proclamation "to the Cherokee people remaining in
North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama" opens thus :

" CHEROKEES, — The President of the United States has sent
me with a powerful army to cause you, in obedience to the
treaty of 1835, to join that part of your people who are al-
ready established on the other side of the Mississippi Unhap-
pily the two years which were allowed for the purpose you
have suffered to pass away without following, and without mak-
ing any preparation to follow ; and now, or by the time that
this solemn address shall reach your distant , settlements, the
emigration must be commenced in haste, but I hope without
disorder. I have no power, by granting a further delay, to
correct the error that you have committed. The full-moon of
May is already on the wane, and before another shall have
passed away every Cherokee man, woman, and child in those
States -must be in motion to join their brethren in the West"

The tone of this proclamation, at once firm and kindly, could
not fail to profoundly impress the unfortunate people to whom

12*

280 A CBNTTTEY OP DISHONOR.

nent home for themselves and their posterity in the country
selected by their forefathers without the territorial limits of
the State sovereignties, and where they can establish and enjoy
a government of their choice, and perpetuate such a state of
society as may be most consonant with their views, habits, and
condition, and as may tend to their individual comfort and
their advancement in civilization."

By this treaty the Cherokees gave up a country " larger than
the three States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connec-
ticut combined, and received therefor five millions of dollars
and seven millions of acres of land west of the Mississippi."
This the United States " guaranteed, and secured to be convey-
ed in patent," and defined it by exact boundaries ; and, " in ad-
dition to the seven millions of acres of land thus provided for
and bounded," the United States did "further guarantee to
the Cherokee nation a perpetual outlet west, and a free and un-
molested use of all the country west of the western boundary
of said seven millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty
of the United States and their rights of soil extend."

The fifth Article of this treaty is, "The United States here-
by covenant and agree that the lands ceded to the Cherokee
nation in the foregoing article shall in no future time, without
their consent, be included within the territorial limits or juris-
diction of any State or Territory."

In the sixth Article is this promise: "The United States
agree to protect the Cherokee nation from domestic strife and
foreign enemies, and against intestine wars between the sev-
eral tribes."

Even after this treaty was made a great part of the nation
refused to sanction it, saying that it did not represent their
wish ; they would never carry it out ; hundreds refused to re-
ceive any longer either money or supplies from the United
States agents, lest they should be considered to have thereby
committed themselves to the treaty.

THE CHEEOKEES, 281

In 183? General Wool wrote from the Cherokee country
fchat the people " uniformly declare that they never made the
treaty in question. * * * So determined are they in their oppo-
sition that not one of all those who were present, and voted in
the council held but a day or two since at this place, however
poor or destitute, would receive either rations or clothing from
the United States, lest they might compromise themselves in
regard to the treaty. These same people, as well as those in
the mountains of North Carolina, during the summer past pre-
ferred living on the roots and sap of trees rather than receive
provisions from the United States. Thousands, I have been
informed, had no other food for weeks."

For two years — to the very last moment allowed them by
the treaty — they clung to their lands, and at last were removed
only by militarjjforce._j[n May, 1838, Grenefal^Scott"was-or^
dered to go with a sufficient military force to compel the re-
moval. His proclamation "to the Cherokee people remaining in
North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama" opens thus:

" CHEROKEES, — The President of the United States has sent
me with a powerful army to cause you, in obedience to the
treaty of 1835, to join that part of your people who are al-
ready established on the other side of the Mississippi. Unhap-
pily the two years which were allowed for the purpose you
have suffered to pass away without following, and without mak-
ing any preparation to follow ; and now, or by the time that
this solemn address shall reach your distant . settlements, the
emigration must be commenced in haste, but I hope without
disorder. I have no power, by granting a further delay, to
correct the error that you have committed. The full-moon of
May is already on the wane, and before another shall have
passed away every Cherokee man, woman, and child in those
States -must be in motion to join their brethren in the West"

The tone of this proclamation, at once firm and kindly, could
not fail to profoundly impress the unfortunate people to whom

12*

282 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR,

it was addressed " My troops," said the humane and sympa<
thizing general, " already occupy many positions in the country
that you are to abandon, and thousands and thousands are ap-
proaching from every quarter, to render resistance and escape
alike hopeless. All those troops, regular and militia, are your
friends. Eeceive them and confide in them as such; obey
them when they tell you that you can remain no longer in this
country. Soldiers are as kind-hearted as brave, and the desire
of every one of us is to execute our painful duty in mercy. * * *

"Chiefs, headmen, and warriors, will you then, by resistance,
compel us to resort to arms? God forbid. Or will you by
flight seek to hide yourselves in mountains and forests, and
thus oblige us to hunt you down? Eemember that in pur-
suit it may be impossible to avoid conflicts. The blood of the
white man or the blood of the red man may be spilt; and if
spilt, however accidentally, it may be impossible for the dis-
creet and humane among you or among us to prevent a general
war and carnage. Think of this, my Cherokee brethren 1 I
am an old warrior, and have been present at many a scene of
slaughter ; but spare me, I beseech you, the horror of witness-
ing the destruction of the Cherokees. Do not even wait for
the close approach of the troops, but make such preparations
for emigration as you can, and hasten to this place, to Ross's
Landing, or to G-uinter's Landing, where you will be received
in kindness by officers selected for the purpose. * * * This is
the address of a warrior to warriors. May its entreaties be
kindly received, and may the God of both prosper the Ameri-
cans and Cherokees, and preserve them long in peace and
friendship with each other."

The reply of the council of the Cherokee nation to this proc-
lamation is worthy to be put on record. They make no fur-
ther protest against going; they simply ask the privilege of
undertaking the whole charge of the removal themselves. They
say : " The present condition of the Cherokee people is such

THE CHEEOKEES. 283

that all dispute as to the time of emigration is set at rest. Be-
ing already severed from their homes and their property, their
persons being under the absolute control of the commanding
general, and being altogether dependent on the benevolence
and humanity of that high officer for the suspension of their
transportation to the West at a season and under circumstances
in which sickness and death were to be apprehended to an
alarming extent, all inducements to prolong their stay in this
country are taken away. And however strong their attachment
to the homes of their fathers may be, their interests and their
wishes are now to depart as early as may be consistent with
their safety."

The council therefore submitted to General Scott several
propositions: 1st. "That the Cherokee nation will undertake
the whole business of removing their people to the west of the
river Mississippi." Their estimates of cost, and arrangement
as to time, intervals, etc., were wise and reasonable. To their
estimate of $65,880 as the cost for every thousand persons
transported General Scott objected, thinking it high. He said
that he was " confident " that it would be found that out of
every thousand there would be "at least five hundred strong
men, women, boys, and girls not only capable of marching
twelve or fifteen miles a day, but to whom the exercise would
be beneficial; and another hundred able to go on foot half
that distance daily." He also objected to the estimate of the
ration at sixteen cents as too high.

The council replied that they believed the estimate reason-
able, " having the comfortable removal of our people solely in
view, and endeavoring to be governed, as far as that object will
allow, by the rates of expenditure fixed by the officers of the
Government. After the necessary bedding, cooking- utensils,
and other indispensable articles of twenty persons — say, four or
five families — are placed in a wagon, with subsistence for at least
two days, the weight already will be enough to exclude, in our

1J84 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

opinion, more than a very few persons being hauled. The
great distance to be travelled, liability to sickness on the way
of grown persons, and the desire of performing the trip in as
short a time as possible, induce us still to think our estimate of
that item not extravagant. * * * Whatever may be necessary in
the emigration of our people to their comfort on the way, and
as conducive to their health, we desire to be afforded them ; at
the same time it is our anxious wish, in the management of
this business, to be free at all times from the imputation of ex-
travagance." They added that the item of soap had been for-
gotten in their first estimate, and must now be included, at the
rate of three pounds to every hundred pounds of rations.

General Scott replied, " as the Cherokee people are exclusive-
ly interested in the cost as well as the comfort of the removal,"
he did not feel himself at liberty to withhold his sanction from
these estimates. In the report of the Indian Commissioner,
also, it is stated that " the cost of removal, according to the
Indian estimate, is high ;" but the commissioner adds, " as
hheir own fund pays it, and it was insisted on by their own
confidential agents, it was thought it could not be rejected."

Noble liberality 1 This nation of eighteen thousand indus-
trious, self-supporting people, compelled at the point of the
.bayonet to leave their country and seek new homes in a wilder-
ness, are to be permitted, as a favor, to spend on their jour-
ney to this wilderness as much of their own money as they
think necessary, and have all the soap they want.

The record which the United States Government has left in
oflBcial papers of its self-congratulations in the matter of this
Cherokee removal has an element in it of the ludicrous, spite
of the tragedy and shame.

Says the Secretary of War : " The generous and enlightened
policy evinced in the measures adopted by Congress toward
that people during the last session was ably and judiciously
carried into effect by the general appointed to conduct thcif

THE CHEROKEES. 285

removal. The reluctance of the Indians to relinquish the land
of their birth in the East, and remove to their new homes in
the West, was entirely overcome by the judicious conduct of
that officer, and they departed with alacrity under the guidance
of their own chiefs. The arrangements for this purpose made
by General Scott, in compliance with his previous instructions,
although somewhat costly to the Indians themselves, met the
entire approbation of the Department, as it was deemed of the
last importance that the Cherokees should remove to the West
voluntarily, and that upon their arrival at the place of their
ultimate destination they should recur to the manner in which
they had been treated with kind and grateful feelings. Ha-
manity no less than good policy dictated this course toward
these children of the forest ; and in carrying out in this instance
with an unwavering hand the measures resolved upon by the
Government, in the hope of preserving the Indians and of main-
taining the peace and tranquillity of the whites, it will always
be gratifying to reflect that this has been effected not only
without violence, but with every proper regard for the feelings
and interests of that people."

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs says, in his report: "The
case of the Cherokees is a striking example of the liberality of
the Government in all its branches. * * * A retrospect of the
last eight months in reference to this numerous and more than
ordinarily enlightened tribe cannot fail to be refreshing to well-
constituted minds."

A further appropriation had been asked by the Cherokee
thiefs to meet the expense of their removal (they not thinking
$5,000,000 a very munificent payment for a country as large
as all Massachusetts, Ehode Island, and Connecticut together),
and Congress had passed a law giving them $1147 67 more,
and the commissioner says of this : " When it is considered
that by the treaty of December, 1835, the sum of $5,000,000
was stipulated to be paid them as the full value of their lands,

286 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

after that amount was declared by the Senate of the United
States to be an ample consideration for them, the spirit of this
•whole proceeding cannot be too much admired. By some the
measure may be regarded as just ; by others generous : it per-
haps partook of both attributes. If it went farther than na-
ked justice could have demanded, it did not stop short of what
liberality approved. * * * If our acts have been generous, they
have not been less wise and politic. A large mass of men have
been conciliated; the hazard of an effusion of human blood
has been put by ; good feeling has been preserved, and we have
quietly and gently transported eighteen thousand friends to the
west bank of the Mississippi."

To dwell on the picture of this removal is needless. The
fact by itself is more eloquent than pages of detail and de-
scription could make it. No imagination so dull, no heart so
hard as not to see and to feel, at the bare mention of such an
emigration, what horrors and what anguish it must have in-
volved. "Eighteen thousand friends!" Only a great mag-
nanimity of nature, strengthened by true Christian principle,
could have prevented them from being changed into eighteen
thousand bitter enemies.

For some years after this removal fierce dissensions rent the
Cherokee nation. The party who held that the treaty of 1835
had been unfair, and that the nation still had an unextinguish-
ed right to its old country at the East, felt, as was natural, a
bitter hatred toward the party which, they claimed, had wrong-
fully signed away the nation's lands. Several of the signers of
the treaty, influential men of the nation, were murdered. Par-
ty-spirit ran to such a height that the United States Govern-
ment was compelled to interfere ; and in 1846, after long nego-
tiations and dissensions, a new treaty was made, by the terms
and concessions of which the anti-treaty party were appeased,
a general amnesty provided for, and comparative harmony re*
stored to the nation.

THE CHKBOEJEES. 287

The progress of this people in the ten years following this
removal is almost past helief. In 1851 they had twenty-two
primary schools, and had just built two large houses for a
male and female seminary, in which the higher branches of
education were to he taught. They had a temperance society
with three thousand members, and an auxiliary society in each
of the eight districts into which the country was divided.
They had a Bible Society and twelve churches ; a weekly news-
paper, partly in English, partly in Cherokee ; eight district
courts, two circuit courts, and a supreme court. Legislative
business was transacted as before by the national council and
committee, elected for four years. Nearly one thousand boys
and girls were in the public schools.

In 1860 the agitation on the subject of slavery began to
be felt, a strong antislavery party being • organized in the na-
tion. There were stormy scenes also in that part of the coun-
try nearest the Kansas line. For several years white settlers
had persisted in taking up farms there, and the Cherokees had
in vain implored the Government to drive them away. The
officer at last sent to enforce the Cherokees' rights and dislodge
the squatters was obliged to burn their cabins over their heads
before they would stir, so persuaded were they of the superior
right of the white man over the Indian. " The only reason
the settlers gave for not heeding the notices was that they had
been often notified before to quit the reservation ; and, no steps
having been taken to enforce obedience, they supposed they
would be allowed to remain with like security in this instance."

" It is surprising," says the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
"to see the growing disposition on the part of our citizens to
•wholly disregard our treaty obligations with Indian tribes with-
in our borders ; and it is to be hoped that in future their rights
will be held more sacred, or that the Government will in every
instance promptly see that they are observed and respected."

In the first year of the Civil War a large number of the

288 A OENTUKY OP DISHONOB.

Cherokees took up arms on the rebel side. That this was not
from any love or liking for the Southern cause, it would seem,
must be evident to any one who believed that they were
possessed of memories. The opportunity of fighting against
Georgians could not but have been welcome to the soul of a
Cherokee, even if he bought it at the price of fighting on the
side of the government which had been so perfidious to his na-
tion. Their defection was no doubt largely due to terror. The
forts in their vicinity were surrendered to the rebels ; all United
States troops were withdrawn from that part of the country.
They had no prospect of protection from the Government, and,
as if to leave them without one incentive to loyalty, the Gov-
ernment suspended the payment of their annuities.

The Confederate Government stepped in, artfully promising
to pay what the Northern Government refused. It would have
taken a rare loyalty, indeed, to have stood unmoved in such,
circumstances as these ; yet thousands of the Indians in Indian
Territory did remain loyal, and fled for their lives to avoid be-
ing pressed into the rebel service ; almost half of the Creek
nation, many Seminoles, Chickasaws, Quapaws, Cherokees, and
half a dozen others — over six thousand in all — fled to Kansas,
where their sufferings in the winter of 1862 were heart-rending.

That the Cherokees did not lightly abandon their allegiance
is on record in the official history of the Department of the
Interior. The Report of the Indian Bureau for 1863 says:
"The Cherokees, prior to the Rebellion, were the most numer-
ous, intelligent, wealthy, and influential tribe of this superin-
tendency (the southern). For many months they steadily re-
sisted the efforts made by the rebels to induce them to abandon
their allegiance to the Federal Government ; but being wholly
unprotected, and without the means of resistance, they were
finally compelled to enter into treaty stipulations with the rebel
authorities. This connection was, however, of short duration,
for upon the first appearance of United States forces in their

THE CHEBOKEES. 289

country an entire regiment of Indian troops, raised ostensibly
for service in the rebel army, deserted and came over to us,
and have ever since been under our command, and upon all oc-
casions have proved themselves faithful and efficient soldiers."
In the course of the next year, however, many more joined the
rebels: it was estimated that between six and seven thousand
of the wealthier portion of the nation co-operated in one way
or another with the rebels. The result was that at the end of
the war the Cherokee country was ruined.

" In the Cherokee country," says the Report of the Indian
Bureau for 1865, "where the contending armies have moved
to and fro; where their foraging parties have gone at will,
sparing neither friend nor foe; where the disloyal Cherokees
in the service of the rebel government were determined that
no trace of the homesteads of their loyal brethren should re-
main for their return ; and where the swindling cattle-thieves
have made their ill-gotten gains for two years past, the scene
is one of utter desolation."

The party feeling between the loyal and disloyal Cherokees
ran as high as it did between the loyal and disloyal whites, and
it looked for a time as if it would be as impossible to make
the two opposing parties in the Cherokee nation agree to live
peaceably side by side with each other, as it would to make dis-
charged soldiers from Georgia and from Maine settle down in
one village together. But after long and troublesome negotia-
tions a treaty was concluded in 1866, by which all the neces-
sary points seemed to be established of a general amnesty and
peace.

That the Indians were at a great disadvantage in the making
of these new treaties it is unnecessary to state. The peculiarity
of the Government's view of their situation and rights is most
naively stated in one of the reports for 1862. Alluding to the
necessity of making at no very distant time new treaties with
all these Southern tribes, one of the Indian superintendents

290 A O&NTUltY OF DISHONOR.

says : " While the rebelling of a large portion of most of these
tribes abrogates treaty obligations, and places them at our
mercy, the very important fact should not be forgotten that
the Government first wholly failed to keep its treaty stipula-
tions with those people, and in protecting them, by withdraw-
ing all the troops from the forts in Indian Territory, and leav-
ing them at the mercy of the rebels. It is a \vell-kno\vn fact
that self-preservation in many instances compelled them to
make the best terms they could with the rebels."

Nevertheless they are " at our mercy," because their making
the "best terms they could with the rebels abrogates treaty
obligations." The trite old proverb about the poorness of rules
that do not work both ways seems to be applicable here.

With a recuperative power far in advance of that shown by
any of the small white communities at the South, the Chero-
kees at once addressed themselves to rebuilding their homes
and reconstructing their national life. In one year they estab-
lished fifteen new schools, set all their old industries going, and
in 1869 held a large agricultural fair, which gave a creditable
exhibition of stock and farm produce. Thus a second time
they recovered themselves, after what would seem to be well-
nigh their destruction as a people. But the Indian's fate of
perpetual insecurity, alarm, and unrest does not abandon them,.
In 1870 they are said to be "extremely uneasy about the se-
curity of their possession of the lands they occupy." "When
asked why their high-schools are not re-established, reforms in-
troduced into the administration of justice, desirable improve-
ments undertaken, the reply inevitably comes, " We expect to
have our lands taken away : what is the use of all that when
our doom as a nation is sealed ?"

" Distrust is firmly seated in their minds. National apathy
depresses them, and until they realize a feeling of assurance
that their title to their lands will be respected, and that treaties
are an inviolable law for all parties, the Cherokees will not

THE CHEROKEES. 291

make the efforts for national progress of which they are ca-
pable."

When their delegates went to Washington, in 1866, to mate
the new treaty, they were alarmed by the position taken by
the Government that the nation, as a nation, had forfeited its
rights. They were given to understand that " public opinion
held them responsible for complicity in the Rebellion ; and, al-
though they could point to the fact that the only countenance
the rebels received came from less than one-third of the popu-
lation, and cite the services of two Cherokee regiments in the
Union cause, it was urged home to them that, before being re-
habilitated in their former rights by a new treaty, they were
not in a position to refuse any conditions imposed. Such lan-
guage from persons they believed to possess the power of in-
juring their people intimidated the Cherokee delegates. They
sold a large tract in South-eastern Kansas at a dollar an acre
to an association of speculators, and it went into the possession
of a railroad company. They also acceded, against the wishes
of the Cherokee people, to a provision in the treaty granting
right of way through the country for two railroads. This ex-
cited great uneasiness among the Indians."

And well it might. The events of the next few years am-
ply justified this uneasiness. The rapacity of railroad corpora-
tions is as insatiable as their methods are unscrupulous. The
phrase " extinguishing Indian titles " has become, as it were,
a mere technical term in the transfer of lands. The ex-
pression is so common that it has probably been one of the
agencies in fixing in the minds of the people the prevalent im-
pression that extinction is the ultimate and inevitable fate of
the Indian ; and this being the case, methods and times are
not, after all, of so much consequence ; they are merely fore-
ordained conditions of the great foreordained progression of
events. This is the only explanation of the unconscious inhu-
manity of many good men's modes of thinking and speaking in

292 A CEETTTBY OF DISHONOR.

regard to the Indians being driven from home after home, and
robbed of tract after tract of their lands.

In the Report of the Indian Bureau for 1875 is an account
of a remnant of the Cherokee tribe in North Carolina : " They
number not far from seventeen hundred, and there are proba-
bly in other parts of North Carolina, and scattered through
Georgia and Tennessee, between three and four hundred more.
These Cherokees have had an eventful history. When the
main portion of the tribe "was compelled to remove west of the
Mississippi they fled to the. mountains, and have steadily re-
fused to leave their homes. The proceeds of their lands, which
were sold in accordance with a treaty with the main body of
the Cherokees, have been mainly expended in the purchase of
lands, and providing funds for the Western Cherokees. At
various times previous to the year 1861 the agent for the
Eastern Cherokees, at their request, purchased lands with their
funds, upon which they might make their homes. These pur-
chases, though probably made with good intent, carelessly left
the title in their agent personally, and not in trust. By this
neglect, when subsequently the agent became insolvent, all their
lands were seized and sold for his debts. By special legislation
of Congress their case has been brought before the courts of
North Carolina, and their rights to a certain extent asserted,
and they are enabled to maintain possession of their lands;
and, by the use of their own funds in extinguishing liens, are
now in possession of above seventy thousand acres of fair ara-
ble, timber, and grazing lands. They have shown themselves
capable of self-support, and, I believe, have demonstrated the
unwisdom of removing Indians from a country which offers
to them a home, and where a white man could make a living.
This is shown by the fact that they are now, though receiving
scarcely any Government aid, in a more hopeful condition,
both as to morals, and industry, and personal property, than
the Cherokees who removed West."

THE CHEEOKEES. 293

The Eeport of the Indian Bureau for 1876 fully bears out
this statement. The North Carolina Cherokees have, indeed,
reason to be in a more hopeful condition, for they have their
lands secured to them by patent, confirmed by a decision of
State courts ; but this is what the Department of the Interior
has brought itself to say as to the Western Cherokees' lands,
and those of all other civilized tribes in the Indian Territory :
" By treaty the Government has ceded to the so-called civilized
tribes — the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Sem-
inoles — a section of country altogether disproportionate in
amount to their needs. * * * The amount susceptible of cultiva-
tion must be many-fold greater than can ever be cultivated by
the labor of the Indians. But the Indians claim, it is under-
stood, that they hold their lands by sanctions so solemn that it
would be a gross breach of faith on the part of the Govern-
ment to take away any portion thereof without their consent ;
and that consent they apparently propose to withhold."

Let us set side by side with this last paragraph a quotation
from the treaty by virtue of which " the Indians claim, it is
understood, that they hold " these lands, which they now " ap-
parently propose to withhold." "We will not copy it from the
original treaty ; we will copy it, and a few other sentences with
it, from an earlier report of this same Department of the In-
terior. Only so far back as 1870 we find the Department in a
juster frame of mind toward the Cherokees. " A large part of
the Indian tribes hold lands to which they are. only fixed by
laws that define the reservations to which they shall be con-
fined. It cannot be denied that these are in a great measure
dependent on the humanity of the American people. * * * But
the Cherokees, and the other civilized Indian nations no less,
hold lands in perpetuity by titles defined by the supreme law
of the land. The United States agreed ' to possess the Chero-
kees, and to guarantee it to them forever,' and that guarantee
* was solemnly pledged of seven million acres of land.' The

294 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

consideration for this territory was the same number of acres
elsewhere located. The inducement to the bargain set forth in
the treaty was * the anxious desire of the Government of the
United States to secure to the Cherokee nation of Indians a
permanent home, and which shall, under the most solemn guar-
antee of the United States, be and remain theirs forever — a
home that shall never in all future time be embarrassed by hav-
ing extended around it the lines or placed over it the jurisdic-
tion of a Territory or State, or be pressed upon by the exten-
sion in any way of the limits of any existing State.' To assure
them of their title, a patent for the Territory was issued."

This was the view of the Department of the Interior in 1870.
In 1876 the Department says that affairs in the Indian Terri-
tory are " complicated and embarrassing, and the question is
directly raised whether an extensive section of country is to be
allowed to remain for an indefinite period practically an uncul-
tivated waste, or whether the Government shall determine to
reduce the size of the reservation."

The phrase "whether the Government shall determine to
reduce the size of the reservation " sounds much better than
" whether the Government shall rob the Indians of a few mill-
ions of acres of land ;" but the latter phrase is truth, and the
other is the spirit of lying.

The commissioner says that the question is a difficult one,
and should be " considered with calmness, and a full purpose
to do no injustice to the Indians." He gives his own personal
opinion on it " with hesitancy," but gives it nevertheless, that
" public policy will soon require the disposal of a large portion
of these lands to the Government for the occupancy either of
other tribes of Indians or of white people. There is a very
general and growing opinion that observance of the strict letter
of treaties with Indians is in many cases at variance with their
own best interests and with sound public policy." He adds,
however, that it must not be understood from this recommen-

29$

dation that it is " the policy or purpose of tliis office to in any
way encourage the spirit of rapacity which demands the throw-
ing open of the Indian Territory to white settlement." He
says, " the true way to secure its perpetual occupancy by In-
dians is to fill it up with other Indians, to give them lands in
severalty, and to provide a government strong and intelligent
enough to protect them effectually from any and all encroach-
ments on the part of the whites."

Comment on these preposterously contradictory sentences
would be idle. The best comment on them, and the most fit-
ting close to this sketch of the Cherokee nation, is in a few
more quotations from the official reports of the Indian Bureau.

Of this people, from whom the Department of the Interior
proposes, for "public policy," to take away "a large portion"
of their country, it has published within the last three years
these records :

" It has been but a few years since the Cherokees assembled
in council under trees or in a rude log-house, with hewed logs
for seats. Now the legislature assembles in a spacious brick
council-house, provided with suitable committee-rooms, senate
chamber, representative hall, library, and executive offices, which
cost $22,000.

" Their citizens occupy neat hewed double log-cabins, frame,
brick, or stone houses, according to the means or taste of the ,
individual, with ground adorned by ornamental trees, shrub-
bery, flowers, and nearly every improvement, including or-
chards of the choicest fruits. Some of these orchards have
existed for nearly twenty years, and are now in a good, fruitful
condition. Their women are usually good house-keepers, and
give great attention to spinning and weaving yarns, jeans, and
linsey, and make most of the pants and hunter-jackets of the
men and boys. The farmers raise most of their own wool and
cotton, and it is not an uncommon sight, in a well-to-do Chero-
kee farmer's house, to see a sewing-machine and a piano.

296 A CENTUEY OP DISHONOR

" They have ample provision for the education of all thcii
children to a degree of advancement equal to that furnished
by an ordinary college in the States. They have seventy-five
common day-schools, kept open ten months in the year, in the
different settlements. For the higher education of their young
men and women they have two commodious and well-furnished
seminaries, one for each sex ; and, in addition to those already
mentioned, they have a manual labor school and an orphan
asylum. The cost of maintaining these schools the past year
(1877) was, as reported by the superintendent of public in-
struction, $73,441 65, of which $41,475 was paid as salary to
teachers.

" They have twenty-four stores, twenty-two mills, and sixty-
five smith-shops, owned and conducted by their own citizens.

"Their constitution and laws are published in book form;
and from their printing-house goes forth among the people in
their own language, and also in English, the Cherokee Advo-
cate, a weekly paper, which is edited with taste and ability.

" They have (and this is true also of the Choctaws, Creeks,
Chickasaws, and Seminoles) a constitutional government, with
legislative, judicial, and executive departments, and conducted
upon the same plan as our State governments, the entire ex-
penses of which are paid out of their own funds, which are de-
rived from interest on various stocks and bonds — the invested
proceeds of the sale of their lands, and held in trust by the
Government of the United States— which interest is paid the
treasurers of the different nations semi-annually, and by them
disbursed on national warrants issued by the principal chief
and secretary, and registered by the auditors.

" They are an intelligent, temperate, and industrious people,
who live by the honest fruits of their labor, and seem ambi-
tious to advance both as to the development of their lands and
the conveniences of their homes. In their council may be
found men of learning and ability; and it is doubtful if their

THE CHBROKEBS. 297

rapid progress from a state of -wild barbarism to that of civili-
zation and enliglitenment has any parallel in the history of the
world. What required five hundred years for the Britons to
accomplish in this direction they have accomplished in one hun-
dred years."

Will the United States Government determine to "reduce
the size of the reservation ?"

13

298 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

CHAPTER IX.

MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES,

I. — The Conestoga Massacre.

WHEN the English first entered Pennsylvania messengers
from the Conestoga Indians met them, bidding them welcome,
and bringing gifts of corn and venison and skins. The whole
tribe entered into a treaty of friendship with William Penn,
which was to last "as long as the sun should shine or the
waters run into the rivers."

The records of Pennsylvania history in the beginning of the
eighteenth century contain frequent mention of the tribe. In
1*705 the governor sent the secretary of his council, with a del-
egation of ten men, to hold an interview with them at Cones-
toga, for purposes of mutual understanding and confidence.
And in that same year Thomas Chalkley, a famous Quaker
preacher, while sojourning among the Maryland Quakers, was
suddenly seized with so great a "concern" to visit these In-
dians that he laid the matter before the elders at the Notting-
ham meeting ; and, the idea being " promoted " by the elders,
he set off with an interpreter and a party of fourteen to make
the journey. He says: "We travelled through the woods
about fifty miles, carrying our provisions with us ; and on the
journey sat down by a river and spread our food on the grass,
and refreshed ourselves and horses, and then went on cheer-
fully and with good-will and much love to the poor Indians.
And when we came they received us kindly, treating us civilly
in their way. We treated about having a meeting with them
in a religious way ; upon which they called a council, in which

MASSACRES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. 299

they were very grave, and spoke, one after another, without
any heat or jarring. Some of the most esteemed of their
women speak in their councils."

When asked why they suffered the women to speak, they
replied that "some women were wiser than some men." It
was said that they had not for many years done anything with-
out the advice of a certain aged and grave woman, who was al-
ways present at their councils. The interpreter said that she
was an empress, and that they gave much heed to what she
said. This wise queen of Conestoga looked with great favor
on the Quakers, the interpreter said, because they " did not
come to buy or sell, or get gain ;" but came " in love and re-
spect " to them, " and desired their well-doing, both here and
hereafter." Two nations at this time were represented in this
Conestoga band — the Senecas and the Shawanese.

The next year the governor himself, anxious to preserve
their inalienable good-will, and to prevent their being seduced
by emissaries from the French, went himself to visit them.
On this occasion one of the chiefs made a speech, still pre-
served in the old records, which contains this passage : " Father,
we love quiet ; we suffer the mouse to play ; when the woods
are rustled by the wind, we fear not; when the leaves are dis-
turbed in ambush, we are uneasy ; when a cloud obscures your
brilliant sun, our eyes feel dim ; but when the rays appear, they
give great heat to the body and joy to the heart. Treachery
darkens the chain of friendship ; but truth makes it brighter
than ever. This is the peace we desire."

A few years later a Swedish missionary visited them, and
preached them a sermon on original sin and the necessity of a
mediator. When he had finished, an Indian chief rose and re-
plied to him ; both discourses being given through an interpret-
er. The Swede is said to have been so impressed with the In-
dian's reasoning that, after returning to Sweden, he wrote out
his own sermon and the Indian's reply in the best Latin at his

300 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

command, and dedicated the documents to the University of
Upsal, respectfully requesting them to furnish him with some
arguments strong enough to confute the strong reasonings of
this savage.

"Our forefathers," said the chief, "were under a strong
persuasion (as we are) that those who act well in this life will
be rewarded in the next according to the degrees of their vir*
tues ; and, on the other hand, that those who behave wicked-
ly here will undergo such punishments hereafter as were pro-
portionate to the crimes they were guilty of. This has been
constantly and invariably received and acknowledged for a
truth through every successive generation of our ancestors. It
could not, then, have taken its rise from fable ; for human fic-
tion, however artfully and plausibly contrived, can never gain
credit long among people where free inquiry is allowed, which
was never denied by our ancestors. * * * Now we desire to pro-
pose some questions. Does he believe that our forefathers,
men eminent for their piety, constant and warm in their pur-
suit of virtue, hoping thereby to merit eternal happiness, were
all damned ? Does he think that we who are zealous imitators
in good works, and influenced by the same motives as we are,
earnestly endeavoring with the greatest circumspection to tread
the path of integrity, are in a state of damnation ? If that be his
sentiment, it is surely as impious as it is bold and daring. * * *
Let us suppose that some heinous crimes were committed by
some of our ancestors, like to that we are told of another
race of people. In such a case God would certainly punish
the criminal, but would never involve us that are innocent in
the guilt. Those who think otherwise must make the Al-
mighty a very whimsical, evil-natured being. * * * Once more :
are the Christians more virtuous, or, rather, are they not more
vicious than we are ? If so, how came it to pass that they
are the objects of God's beneficence, while we are neglected 1
Does he daily confer his favors without reason and with so

MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES. 301

much partiality ? In a word, we find the Christians much
more depraved in their morals than we are ; and we judge
from their doctrine by the badness of their lives."

It is plain that this Indian chief's speech was very much
Latinized in the good Swede's hands ; but if the words even
approached being a true presentation of what he said, it is
wonderful indeed.

In 1721 His Excellency Sir William Keith, Bart., Governor
of the Province of Pennsylvania, went with an escort of eighty
horsemen to Conestoga, and spent several days in making a
treaty with the representatives of the Five Nations, " the In-
dians of Conestoga and their friends." He was entertained at
" Captain Civility's cabin." When he left them, he desired
them to give his " very kind love and the love of all our peo-
ple to your kings and to all their people." He invited them
to visit him in Philadelphia, saying, " We can provide better for
you and make you more welcome. People always receive their
friends best at their own homes." He then took out a corona-
tion medal of the King, and presented it to the Indian in these
words : " That our children when we are dead may not forget
these things, but keep this treaty between us in perpetual re-
membrance, I here deliver to you a picture in gold, bearing the
image of my great master, the King of all the English. And
when you return home, I charge you to deliver this piece into
the hands of the first man or greatest chief of all the Five Na-
tions, whom you call Kannygoodk, to be laid up and kept as
a token to our children's children that an entire and lasting
friendship is now established forever between the English in
this country and the great Five Nations."

At this time the village of Conestoga was described as lying
" about seventy miles west of Philadelphia. The land therea-
bout being exceeding rich, it is now surrounded with divers fine
plantations and farms, where they raise quantities of wheat,
barley, flax, and hemp, without the help of any dung,"

302 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

The next year, also, was marked by a council of great sig-
nificance at Conestoga. In the spring of this year an Indian
called Saanteenee had been killed by two white men, brothers,
named Cartledge. At this time it was not only politic but
necessary for the English to keep on good terms with as many
Indians as possible. Therefore, the old record says, " Policy
and justice required a rigid inquiry " into this affair, and the
infliction of " exemplary punishment."

Accordingly, the Cartledges were arrested and confined in
Philadelphia, and the high-sheriff of Chester County went, with
two influential men of the province, to Conestoga, to confei'
with the Indians as to what should be done with them. The
Indians were unwilling to decide the matter without advice
from the Five Nations, to whom they owed allegiance. A
swift runner (Satcheecho) was, therefore, sent northward with
the news of the occurrence ; and the governor, with two of his
council, went to Albany to hear what the Five Nations had to
say about it What an inconceivable spectacle to us to-day :
the governments of Pennsylvania and New York so fully rec-
ognizing an Indian to be a " person," and his murder a thing
to be anxiously and swiftly atoned for if possible !

Only a little more than a hundred and fifty years lie between
this murder of Saanteenee in Conestoga and the murder of Big
Snake on the Ponca Reservation in 1880. Verily, Policy has
kept a large assortment of spectacles for Justice to look through
in a surprising short space of time.

On the decision of the king and chiefs of the Five Nations
hung the fate of the murderers. Doubtless the brothers Cart-
ledge made up their minds to die. The known principles of
the Indians in the matter of avenging injuries certainly left
them little room for hope. But no ! The Five Nations took
a different view. They "desired that the Cartledges should
not suffer death, and the affair was at length amicably settled,"
says the old record. "One life," said the Indian king, "on

MASSACBES OF INDIANS BY WHITES. 303

this occasion, is enough to be lost. There should not two
die."

This was in 1722. In 1763 there were only twenty of these
Conestoga Indians left — seven men, five women, and eight chil-
dren. They were still living in their village on the Shawanee
Creek, their lands being assured to them by manorial gift ; but
they were miserably poor — earned by making brooms, baskets,
and wooden bowls a part of their living, and begged the rest
They were wholly peaceable and unoffending, friendly to their
white neighbors, and pitifully clinging and affectionate, naming
their children after whites who were kind to them, and striving
in every way to show their gratitude and good-will

Upon this little community a band of wbite men, said by
some of the old records to be " Presbyterians," from Paxton,
made an attack at daybreak on the 14th of December. They
found only six of the Indians at home — three men, two women,
and a boy. The rest were away, either at work for the white
farmers or selling their little wares. " These poor defenceless
creatures were immediately fired upon, stabbed, and hatcheted
to death ; the good Shebaes, among the rest, cut to pieces in his
bed. All of them were scalped and otherwise horribly mangled,
then their huts were set on fire, and most of them burnt down."

" Shebaes was a very old man, having assisted at the second
treaty held with Mr.Penn, in 1701, and ever since continued a
faithful friend to the English. He is said to have been an ex-
ceeding good man, considering his education ; being naturally
of a most kind, benevolent temper."

From a manuscript journal kept at this time, and belonging
to the great-granddaughter of Eobert Barber, the first settler in
Lancaster County, are gathered the few details known of this
massacre. "Some of the murderers went directly from the
scene of their crime to Mr. Barber's house. They were stran-
gers to him ; but, with the hospitality of those days, he made
a fire for them and set refreshments before them.

304 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

"While they warmed themselves, they inquired why the
Indians were suffered to live peaceably here. Mr. Barber said
they were entirely inoffensive, living on their own lands and
injuring no one. They asked what would be the consequence
if they were all destroyed. Mr. Barber said he thought they
would be as liable to punishment as if they had destroyed so
many white men. They said they were of a different opinion,
and in a few minutes went out. In the mean time two sons of
Mr. Barber's, about ten or twelve years old, went out to look
at the strangers' horses, which were hitched at a little distance
from the house.

"After the men went the boys came in, and said that they
had tomahawks tied to their saddles which were all bloody,
and that they had Christy's gun. Christy was a little Indian
boy about their own age. They were much attached to him,
as he was their playmate, and made bows and arrows for
them."

While the family were talking over this, and wondering
what it could mean, a messenger came running breathless to
inform them of what had happened. Mr. Barber went at once
to the spot, and there he found the murdered Indians lying
in the smouldering ruins of their homes, " like half-consumed
logs." He, " with some trouble, procured their bodies, to ad-
minister to them the rights of sepulture."

" It was said that at the beginning of the slaughter an In-
dian mother placed her little child under a barrel, charging it
to make no noise, and that a shot was fired through the barrel
which broke the child's arm, and still it kept silent."

The magistrates of Lancaster, shocked, as well they might
be, at this frightful barbarity, sent messengers out immediately,
and took the remaining Indians, wherever they were found,
brought them into the town for protection, and lodged them
in the newly-erected workhouse or jail, which was the strongest
building in the place. The Governor of Pennsylvania issued a

HASSACBES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. 305

proclamation, ordering all judges, sheriffs, and " all His Hajes-
ty's liege subjects in the province," to make every effort to
apprehend the authors and perpetrators of this crime, also
their abettors and accomplices. But the " Paxton Boys " held
magistrates and governor alike in derision. Two weeks later
they assembled again, fifty strong, rode to Lancaster, dismount-
ed, broke open the doors of the jail, and killed every Indian
there.

" When the poor wretches saw they had no protection nigh,
nor could possibly escape, and being without the least weapon
of defence, they divided their little families, the children cling-
ing to their parents. They fell on their faces, protested their
innocence, declared their love to the English, and that in their
whole lives they had never done them injury. And in this
posture they all received the hatchet Men, women, and chil-
dren were every one inhumanly murdered in cold blood. * * *
The barbarous men who committed the atrocious act, in defi-
ance of government, of all laws, human and divine, and to the
eternal disgrace of their country and color, then mounted their
horses, huzzaed in triumph, as if they had gained a victory,
and rode off unmolested. * * * The bodies of the murdered
were then brought out and exposed in the street till a hole
could be made in the earth to receive and cover them. But
the wickedness cannot be covered, and the guilt will lie on the
whole land till justice is done on the murderers. The blood
of the innocent will cry to Heaven for vengeance."

These last extracts are from a pamphlet printed in Phila-
delphia at the time of the massacre; printed anonymously,
because "so much had fear seized the minds of the people"
that neither the writer nor the printer dared to give " name or
place of abode."

There are also private letters still preserved which give ac-
counts of the affair. A part of one from William Henry, of
Lancaster, to a friend in Philadelphia, is given in " Eupp's His-

13*

306 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

tory of Lancaster County." He says, "A regiment of High-
landers were at that time quartered at the barracks in the
town, and yet these murderers were permitted to break open
the doors of the city jail and commit the horrid deed. The
first notice I had of the affair was that, while at my father's
store near the court-house, I saw a number of people running
down-street toward the jail, which enticed me and other lads
to follow them. At about six or eight yards from the jail we
met from twenty-five to thirty men, well mounted on horses,
and with rifles, tomahawks, and scalping-knives, equipped fot
murder. I ran into the prison-yard, and there, oh, what a hor-
rid sight presented itself to my view ! Near the back door of
the prison lay an old Indian and his squaw, particularly well
known and esteemed by the people of the town on account of
his placid and friendly conduct. His name was Will Soc.
Around him and his squaw lay two children, about the age of
three years, whose heads were split with the tomahawk and
their scalps taken off. Toward the middle of the jail -yard,
along the west side of the wall, lay a stout Indian, whom I par-
ticularly noticed to have been shot in his breast. His legs
were chopped with the tomahawk, his hands cut off, and finally
a rifle-ball discharged in his mouth, so that his head was blown
to atoms, and the brains were splashed against and yet hanging
to the wall for three or four feet around. This man's hands
and feet had been chopped off with a tomahawk. In this
manner lay the whole of them — men, women, and children —
spread about the prison-yard, shot, scalped, hacked, and cut to
pieces."

After this the Governor of Pennsylvania issued a second
proclamation, still more stringent than the first, and offering a
reward of $600 for the apprehension of any three of the
ringleaders.

But the "Paxton Boys" were now like wild beasts that had
tasted blood. They threatened to attack the Quakers and all

MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES. 307

persons who sympathized with or protected Indians. They
openly mocked and derided the governor and his proclama-
tions, and set off at once for Philadelphia, announcing their
intention of killing all the Moravian Indians who had been
placed under the protection of the military there.

Their march through the country was like that of a band of
maniacs. In a private letter written by David Rittenhouse at
this time, he says, "About fifty of these scoundrels marched by
my workshop. I have seen hundreds of Indians travelling the
country, and can with truth affirm that the behavior of these
fellows was ten times more savage and brutal than theirs.
Frightening women by running the muzzles of guns through
windows, hallooing and swearing ; attacking men without the
least provocation, dragging them by the hair to the ground, and
pretending to scalp them ; shooting dogs and fowls : these are
some of their exploits."

It is almost past belief that at this time many people justi-
fied these acts. An Episcopalian clergyman in Lancaster wrote
vindicating them, "bringing Scripture to prove that it was
right to destroy the heathen ;" and the " Presbyterians think
they have a better justification — nothing less than the Word
of God," says one of the writers on the massacre.

" With the Scriptures in their hands and mouths, they can
set at naught that express command, * Thou shalt do no mur-
der,' and justify their wickedness by the command given to
Joshua to destroy the heathen. Horrid perversion of Script-
ure and religion, to father the worst of crimes on the God of
Love and Peace 1" It is a trite saying that history repeats it-
self ; but it is impossible to read now these accounts of the
massacres of defenceless and peaceable Indians in the middle
of the eighteenth century, without the reflection that the rec-
ord of the nineteenth is blackened by the same stains. What
Pennsylvania pioneers did in 1763 to helpless and peaceable
Indians of Conestoga, Colorado pioneers did in 1864 to help

308 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

less and peaceable Cheyennes at Sand Creek, and have threat*
ened to do again to helpless and peaceable Utes in 1880. The
word " extermination " is as ready on the frontiersman's tongue
to-day as it was a hundred years ago ; and the threat is more
portentous now, seeing that we are, by a whole century of
prosperity, stronger and more numerous, and the Indians are,
by a whole century of suffering and oppression, fewer and
weaker. But our crime is baser and our infamy deeper in the
same proportion.

Close upon this Conestoga massacre followed a " removal "
of friendly Indians — the earliest on record, and one whose
cruelty and cost to the suffering Indians well entitle it to a
place in a narrative of massacres.

Everywhere in the provinces fanatics began to renew the
old cry that the Indians were the Canaanites whom God ha<J
commanded Joshua to destroy; and that these wars were a
token of God's displeasure with the Europeans for permitting
the "heathen" to live. Soon it became dangerous for a Mo-
ravian Indian to be seen anywhere. In vain did he carry one
of the Pennsylvania governor's passports in his pocket. He
was liable to be shot at sight, with no time to pull his passport
out. Even in the villages there was no safety. The devoted
congregations watched and listened night and day, not know-
ing at what hour they might hear the fatal warwhoop of hos-
tile members of their own race, coming to slay them ; or the
sudden shots of white settlers, coming to avenge on them out-
rages committed by savages hundreds of miles away.

With every report that arrived of Indian massacres at the
North, the fury of the white people all over the country rose
to greater height, including even Christian Indians in its un-
reasoning hatred. But, in the pious language of a narrative
written by one of the Moravian missionaries, "God inclined
the hearts of the chief magistrates to protect them. Novem*
ber 6th an express arrived from Philadelphia, bringing an or

MASSACBES OF INDIANS 15Y WHITES. 309

der that all the baptized Indians from Nam and Wcchquetank
should be brought to Philadelphia, and be protected in that city,
having first delivered up their arms."

Two days later both these congregations set out on their sad
journey, weeping as they left their homes. They joined forces
at Bethlehem, on the banks of the Lecha, and "entered upon
their pilgrimage in the name of the Lord, the congregation of
Bethlehem standing spectators, and, as they passed, commend-
ing them to the grace and protection of God, with supplica-
tion and tears."

Four of the Moravian missionaries were with them, and some
of the brethren from Bethlehem accompanied them all the way,
" the sheriff, Mr. Jennings, caring for them as a father."

The aged, the sick, and the little children were carried in
wagons. All the others, women and men, went on foot. The
November rains had made the roads very heavy. As the wea-
ry and heart-broken people toiled slowly along through the
mud, they were saluted with curses and abuse on all sides. As
they passed through the streets of Germantown a mob gather-
ed and followed them, taunting them with violent threats of
burning, hanging, and other tortures. It was said that a party
had been organized to make a serious attack on them, but was
deterred by the darkness and the storm. Four days were con-
sumed in this tedious march, and on the llth of November
they reached Philadelphia. Here, spite of the governor's pos-
itive order, the officers in command at the barracks refused
to allow them to enter. From ten in the forenoon till three
in the afternoon there the helpless creatures stood before the
shut gate — messengers going back and forth between the
defiant garrison and the bewildered and impotent governor;
the mob, thickening and growing more and more riotous hour
by hour, pressing the Indians on every side, jeering them, re-
viling them, charging them with all manner of outrages, and
threatening to kill them on the spot. The missionaries, brave-

310 A CENTUBY OF DISHONOR.

Iy standing beside their flock, in vain tried to stem or turn the
torrent of insult and abuse. All that they accomplished was
to draw down the same insult and abuse on their own heads.

Nothing but the Indians' marvellous patience and silence
saved them from being murdered by this exasperated mob.
To the worst insults they made no reply, no attempt at retalia-
tion or defence. They afterward said that they had comforted
themselves " by considering what insult and mockery our Sav-
iour had suffered on their account."

At last, after five hours of this, the governor, unable to com-
pel the garrison to open the barracks, sent an order that the
Indians should be taken to Province Island, an island in the
Delaware Eiver joined to the main-land by a dam. Six miles
more, every mile in 'risk of their lives, the poor creatures walk-
ed. As they passed again through the city, thousands fol-
lowed them, the old record says, and " with such tumultuous
clamor that they might truly be considered as sheep among
wolves."

Long after dark they reached the island, and were lodged in
some unused buildings, large and comfortless. There they kept
their vesper service, and took heart from the fact that the verse
for the day was that verse of the beautiful thirty-second psalm
•which has comforted so many perplexed souls : " I will teach
thee in the way thou shalt go."

Here they settled themselves as best they could. The mis-
sionaries had their usual meetings with them, and humane peo-
ple from Philadelphia, " especially some of the people called
Quakers," sent them provisions and fuel, and tried in various
ways to "render the inconvenience of their situation less
grievous."

Before they had been here a month some of the villages
they had left were burnt, and the riotous Paxton mob, which
had murdered all the peaceful Conestogn, Indians, announced its
intention of marching on Province Island and killing every In-

MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES. 311

dian there. The Governor of Pennsylvania launched procla-
mation after proclamation, forbidding any one, under severest
penalties, to molest the Indians under its protection, and offer-
ing a reward of two hundred pounds for the apprehension of
the ringleaders of the insurgents. But public sentiment was
inflamed to such a degree that the Government was practi-
cally powerless. The known ringleaders and their sympathiz-
ers paraded contemptuously in front of the governor's house,
mocking him derisively, and not even two hundred pounds
would tempt any man to attack them. In many parts of Lan-
caster County parties were organized with the avowed inten-
tion of marching on Philadelphia and slaughtering all the In-
dians under the protection of the Government. Late on the
29th of December rumors reached Philadelphia that a large
party of these rioters were on the road ; and the governor, at
daybreak the next day, sent large boats to Province Island,
with orders to the missionaries to put their people on board as
quickly as possible, row to Leek Island, and await further or-
ders. In confusion and terror the congregations obeyed, and
fled to Leek Island. Later in the day came a second letter
from the governor, telling them that the alarm had proved a
false one. They might return to Province Island, where he
would send them a guard ; and that they would better keep
the boats, to be ready in case of a similar emergency.

" They immediately returned with joy to their former habi-
tation," says the old record, " comforted by the text for the
day — 'The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart
trusted in him ' (Ps. xxviii., 7) — and closed this remarkable
year with prayer and thanksgiving for all the proofs of the
help of God in so many heavy trials."

Four days later the missionaries received a second order for
instant departure. The reports of the murderous intentions of
the rioters being confirmed, and the governor seeing only too
clearly his own poweiiessness to contend with them, he had re-

812 A CENTUBY OP DISHONOR.

solved to send the Indians northward, and put them under the
protection of the English army, and especially of Sir William
Johnson, agent for the Crown among the Northern Indians.
No time was to be lost in carrying out this plan, for at any mo-
ment the mob might attack Province Island. Accordingly, at
midnight of January 4th, the fugitives set out once more, pass-
ed through Philadelphia, undiscovered, to the meeting-house
of the Moravian Brethren, where a breakfast had been pro-
vided for them, Here they were met by the commissary, Mr.
Fox, who had be.en detailed by the governor to take charge of
their journey. Mr. Fox, heart -stricken at their suffering ap-
pearance, immediately sent out and bought blankets to be dis-
tributed among them, as some protection against the cold.
Wagons were brought for the aged, sick, blind, little children,
and the heavy baggage ; and again the pitiful procession took
up its march. Again an angry mob gathered fast on its steps,
cursing and reviling in a terrible manner, only restrained by
fear from laying violent hands on them. Except for the pro-
tection of a military escort they would scarcely have escaped
murderous assault.

At Amboy two sloops lay ready to transport them to New
York; but just as they reached this place, and were preparing
to go on shore, a messenger arrived from the Governor of
New York with angry orders that not an Indian should set
foot in that territory. Even the ferry -men were forbidden,
under heavy penalties, to ferry one across the river.

The commissioner in charge of them, in great perplexity,
sent to the Governor of Pennsylvania for further orders, plac-
ing the Indians, meantime, in the Amboy barracks. Here they
held their daily meetings, singing and praying with great unc-
tion, un,til finally many of their enemies were won to a hearty
respect and sympathy for them ; even soldiers being heard to
say, " Would to God all the white people were as good Chris-
tians as these Indians.'9

MASSACRES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. 313

The Pennsylvania governor had nothing left him to do but
to order the Indians back again, and, accordingly, says the
record, "The Indian congregation set out with cheerfulness
on their return, in full confidence that the Lord in his good
providence, for wise purposes best known to himself, had or-
dained their travelling thus to and fro. This belief supported
them under all the difficulties they met with in their journeys
made in the severest part of winter."

They made the return journey under a large military escort,
one party in advance and one bringing up the rear. This es-
cort was composed of soldiers, who, having just coine from Ni-
agara, where they had been engaged in many fights with the
North-western savages, were at first disposed to treat these de-
fenceless Indians with brutal cruelty ; but they were soon dis-
armed by the Indians' gentle patience, and became cordial and
friendly.

The return journey was a hard one. The aged and infirm
people had become much weakened by their repeated hardships,
and the little children suffered pitiably. In crossing some of
the frozen rivers the feeble ones were obliged to crawl on their
hands and feet on the ice.

On the 24th of January they reached Philadelphia, and were
at once taken to the barracks, where almost immediately mobs
began again to molest and threaten them. The governor, thor-
oughly in earnest now, and determined to sustain his own honor
and that of the province, had eight heavy pieces of cannon
mounted and a rampart thrown up in front of the barracks.
The citizens were called to arms, and so great was the excite-
ment that it is said even Quakers took guns and hurried to the
barracks to defend the Indians ; and the governor himself went
at midnight to visit them, and reassure them by promises of pro-
tection.

On February 4th news was received that the rioters in large
force were approaching the city. Hearing of the preparations

A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

made to receive them, they did not venture to enter. On the
night of the 5th, however, they drew near again. The whole
city was roused, church -bells rung, bonfires lighted, cannon
fired, the inhabitants waked from their sleep and ordered to
the town-house, where arms were given to all. Four more can-
non -were mounted at the barracks, and all that day was spent
in hourly expectation of the rebels. But their brave boasts
were not followed up by action. Seeing that the city was in
arms against them, they halted. The governor then sent a dele-
gation of citizens to ask them what they wanted.

They asserted, insolently, that there were among the Indians
some who had committed murders, and that they must be given
up. Some of the ringleaders were then taken into the barracks
and asked to point out the murderers. Covered with confu-
sion, they were obliged to admit they could not accuse one In-
dian there. They then charged the Quakers with having taken
away six and concealed them. This also was disproved, and
finally the excitement subsided.

All through the spring and summer the Indians remained
prisoners in the barracks. Their situation became almost in-
supportable from confinement, unwholesome diet, and the men-
tal depression inevitable in their state. To add to their mis-
ery small-pox broke out among them, and fifty-six died in the
course of the summer from this loathsome disease.

"We cannot describe," said the missionaries, "the joy and
fervent desire which most of them showed in the prospect of
seeing their Saviour face to face. We saw with amazement the
power of the blood of Jesus in the hearts of poor sinners."
This was, no doubt, true ; but there might well have entered
into the poor, dying creatures' thoughts an ecstasy at the mere
prospect of freedom, after a year of such imprisonment and
suffering.

At last, on December 4th, the news of peace reached Phila-
delphia. On the 6th a proclamation was published in all tha

MASSACEES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. . 313

newspapers that war was ended and hostilities must cease. The
joy with which the prisoned Indians received this news can
hardly be conceived. It " exceeded all descriptions," says the
record, and " was manifested in thanksgivings and praises to
the Lord."

It was still unsafe, however, for them to return to their old
homes, which were thickly surrounded by white settlers, who
were no less hostile now at heart than they had been before the
proclamation of peace. It was decided, therefore, that they
should make a new settlement in the Indian country on the
Susquehanna River. After a touching farewell to. their old
friends of the Bethlehem congregation, and a grateful leave-
taking of the governor, who had protected and supported them
for sixteen months, they set out on the 3d of April for their
new home in the wilderness. For the third time their aged,
sick, and little children were placed in overloaded wagons, for
a long and difficult journey — a far harder one than any they
had yet taken. The inhospitalities of the lonely wilderness
were worse than the curses and revilings of riotous mobs.
They were overtaken by severe snow-storms. They camped
in icy swamps, shivering all night around smouldering fires of
wet wood. To avoid still hostile whites they had to take
great circuits through unbroken forests, where each foot of
their path had to be cut tree by tree. The men waded streams
and made rafts for the women and children. Sometimes, when
the streams were deep, they had to go into camp, and wait till
canoes could be built. They carried heavy loads of goods for
which there was no room in the wagons. Going over high,
steep hills, they often had to divide their loads into small par-
cels, thus doubling and trebling the road. Their provisions
gave out. They ate the bitter wild potatoes. When the chil-
dren cried with hunger, they peeled chestnut-trees, and gave
them the sweet-juiced inner bark to suck. Often they had no
water except that from shallow, muddy puddles. Once they

816 A CBNTTJET OP DISHONOR

were environed by blazing woods, whose fires burnt fiercely for
hours around their encampment. Several of the party died,
and were buried by the way.

"But all these trials were forgotten in their daily meetings,
in which the presence of the Lord was most sensibly and com-
fortably felt. These were always held in the evening, around
a large fire, in the open air."

They celebrated a "joyful commemoration" of Easter, and
spent the Passion - week "in blessed contemplation" of the
sufferings of Jean*, whose "presence supported them under all
afflictions, insomuch that they never lost their cheerfulness
and resignation" during the five long weeks of this terrible
journey.

On the 9th of May they arrived at Machwihilusing, and
" forgot all their pain and trouble for joy that they had reach-
ed the place of their future abode. * * * With offers of praise
and thanksgiving, they devoted themselves anew to Him who
had given them rest for the soles of their feet."

" With renewed courage " they selected their home on the
banks of the Susquehanna, and proceeded to build houses.
They gave to the settlement the name of Friedenshutten — a
name full of significance, as coming from the hearts of these
persecuted wanderers : Friedenshutten — " Tents of Peace."

If all this persecution had fallen upon these Indians because
they were Christians, the record, piteous as it is, would be only
one out of thousands of records of the sufferings of Christian
martyrs, and would stir our sympathies less than many another.
But this was not the case. It was simply because they were
Indians that the people demanded their lives, and would have
taken them, again and again, except that all the power of the
Government was enlisted for their protection. The fact of
their being Christians did not enter in, one way or the other,
any more than did the fact that they were peaceable. They
were Indians, and the frontiersmen of Pennsylvania intended

MASSACBES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. 31?

either to drive all Indians out of their State or kill them, just
as the frontiersmen of Nebraska and of Colorado now intend
to do if they can. We shall see whether the United States
Government is as strong to-day as the Government of the Prov-
ince of Pennsylvania was in 1763 ; or whether it will try first
(and fail), as John Penn did, to push the helpless, hunted creat-
ures off somewhere into a temporary makeshift of shelter, for a
temporary deferring of the trouble of protecting them.

Sixteen years after the Conestoga massacre came that of
Gnadenhiitten, the blackest crime on the long list ; a massacre
whose equal for treachery and cruelty cannot be pointed out in
the record of massacres of whites by Indians.

n. — The Cfnadenhutten Massacre.

In the year 1779 the congregations of Moravian Indians liv-
ing at Gnadenhiitten, Salem, and Schonbrun, on the Muskingum
River, were compelled by hostile Indians to forsake their vil-
lages and go northward to the Sandusky Eiver. This move-
ment was instigated by the English, who had become sus-
picious that the influence of the Moravian missionaries was
thrown on the side of the colonies, and that their villages were
safe centres of information and supplies. These Indians hav-
ing taken no part whatever in the war, there was no pretext for
open interference with them ; but the English agents found it
no difficult matter to stir up the hostile tribes to carry out
their designs. And when the harassed congregations finally
consented to move, the savages who escorted them were com-
manded by English officers.

" The savages drove them forward like cattle," says an old
narrative ; " the white brethren and sisters in the midst, sur-
rounded by the believing Indians." " One morning, when the
latter could not set out as expeditiously as the savages thought
proper, they attacked the white brethren, and forced them to
set out alone, whipping their horses forward till they grew

SI 8 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

•wild, and not even allowing mothers time to suckle their chil-
dren. The road was exceeding bad, leading through a contin-
uance of swamps. Sister Zeisberger fell twice from her horse,
and once, hanging in the stirrup, was dragged for some time ;
but assistance was soon at hand, and the Lord preserved her
from harm. Some of the believing Indians followed them as
fast as possible, hut with all their exertions did not overtake
them till night."

For one month these unfortunate people journeyed through
the wilds in this way. When they reached the Sandusky
Creek the savages left them to take care of themselves as best
they might. They were over a hundred miles from their
homes, " in a wilderness where there was neither game nor pro-
visions." Here they built huts of logs and bark. They had
neither beds nor blankets. In fact, the only things which the
savages had left them were their utensils for making maple
sugar. It was the middle of October when they reached San-
dusky. Already it was cold, and the winter was drawing near.
In November Governor De Peyster, the English commander at
Fort Detroit, summoned the missionaries to appear before him
and refute the accusations brought against their congregations
of having aided and abetted the colonies.

" The missionaries answered that they doubted not in the
least but that very evil reports must have reached his ears, as
the treatment they had met with had sufficiently proved that
they were considered as guilty persons, but that these reports
were false. * * * That Congress, indeed, knew that they were
employed as missionaries to the Indians, and did not disturb
them in their labors ; but had never in anything given them
directions how to proceed."

The governor, convinced of the innocence and single-heart-
edness of these noble men, publicly declared that " he felt great
satisfaction in their endeavors to civilize and Christianize the
Indians, and would permit them to return to their congrega-

MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES. 319

tions." He then gave them passports for their journey back
to Sandusky, and appended a permission that they should per-
form the functions of their office among the Christian In-
dians without molestation.

This left them at rest so far as apprehensions of attack from
hostile Indians were concerned; but there still remained the
terrible apprehension of death by starvation and cold. Deep
snows lay on the ground. Their hastily-built huts were so
small that it was impossible to make large fires in them. Their
floors being only the bare earth, whenever a thaw came the
water forced itself up and then froze again. Cattle died for
lack of food, and their carcasses were greedily devoured ; nurs-
ing children died for want of nourishment from their starv-
ing mothers' breasts ; the daily allowance of corn to each adult
was one pint, and even this pittance it was found would not
last till spring.

Nevertheless, " they celebrated the Christmas holidays with
cheerfulness and blessing, and concluded this remarkable year
with thanks and praise to Him who is ever the Saviour of his
people. But, having neither bread nor wine, they could not
keep the communion."

Meantime the com still stood ungathered in their old fields
on the Muskingum River. Weather-beaten, frozen, as it was,
it would be still a priceless store to these starving people. The
project of going back there after it began to be discussed.
It was one hundred and twenty-five miles' journey ; but food
in abundance lay at the journey's end. Finally it was decided
that the attempt should be made. Their first plan was to
hide their families in the woods at some distance from the
settlements lest there might be some danger from hostile
whites. On their way, however, they were met by some of
their brethren from Schonbrun, who advised them to go hack
openly into their deserted towns, assuring them that the
Americans were friendly to them now. They accordingly did

320 A CEOTUBY OF DISHONOB.

so, and remained for several weeks at Salem and Gnadenhiik
ten, working day and night gathering and husking the weath-
er-beaten com, and burying it in holes in the ground in the
woods for future supply. On the very day that they were to
have set off with their packs of com, to return to their starv-
ing friends and relatives at Sandusky, a party of between one
and two hundred whites made their appearance at Gnaden-
hiitten. Seeing the Indians scattered all through the corn-
fields, they rode up to them, expressing pleasure at seeing
them, and saying that they would take them into Pennsyl-
vania, to a place where they would be .out of all reach of per-
secution from the hostile savages or the English. They repre-
sented themselves as " friends and brothers, who had purpose-
ly come out to relieve them from the distress brought on them
on account of their being friends to the American people.
* * * The Christian Indians, not in the least doubting their
sincerity, walked up to them and thanked them for being so
kind ; while the whites again gave assurances that they would
meet with good treatment from them. They then advised
them to discontinue their work and cross over to the town, in
order to make necessary arrangements for the journey, as they
intended to take them out of the reach of their enemies, and
where they would be supplied abundantly with all they stood
in need of."

They proposed to take them to Pittsburg, where they
would be out of the way of any assault made by the English
or the savages. This the Indians heard, one of their mission-
aries writes, " with resignation, concluding that God would
perhaps choose this method to put an end to their sufferings.
Prepossessed with this idea, they cheerfully delivered their
guns, hatchets, and other weapons to the murderers, who prom-
ised to take good care of them, and in Pittsburg to return
every article to its rightful owner. Our Indians even showed
them all those things which they had secreted in the woods,

MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES. 321

assisted in packing them up, and emptied all their "beehives for
these pretended friends."

In the mean time one of the assistants, John Martin by
name, went to Salem, ten miles distant, and carried the good
news that a party of whites had come from the settlements to
carry them to a place of safety and give them protection.
" The Salem Indians," says the same narrative, " did not hesi-
tate to accept of this proposal, believing unanimously that God
had sent the Americans to release them from their disagree-
able situation at Sandusky, and imagining that when arrived
at Pittsburg they might soon find a safe place to build a set-
tlement, and easily procure advice and assistance from Beth-
lehem."

Some of the whites expressed a desire to see the village of
Salem, were conducted thither, and received with much friend-
ship by the Indians. On the way they entered into spiritual
conversation with their unsuspecting companions, feigning
great piety and discoursing on many religious and scriptural
subjects. They offered also to assist the Salem Indians in
moving their effects.

In the mean time the defenceless Indians at Gnadenhiitten
were suddenly attacked, driven together, bound with ropes,
and confined. As soon as the Salem Indians arrived, they
met with the same fate.

The murderers then held a council to decide what should
be done with them. By a majority of votes it was decided to
kill them all the next day. To the credit of humanity be it
recorded, that there were in this band a few who remonstrated,
declared that these Indians were innocent and harmless, and
should be set at liberty, or, at least, given up to the Govern-
ment as prisoners. Their remonstrances were unavailing, and,
finding that they could not prevail on these monsters to spare
the Indians' lives, "they wrung their hands, calling God to
witness that they were innocent of the blood of these Chris-

14

322 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

tian Indians. They then withdrew to some distance from the
scene of slaughter."

The majority were unmoved, and only disagreed as to the
method of putting their victims to death. Some were for
"burning tliem alive; others for tomahawking and scalping
them. The latter method was determined on, and a message
was sent to the Indians that, "as they were Christian Indians,
they might prepare themselves in a Christian manner, for they
must all die to-morrow."

The rest of the narrative is best told in the words of the
Moravian missionaries : " It may be easily conceived how great
their terror was at hearing a sentence so unexpected. How-
ever, they soon recollected themselves, and patiently suffered
the murderers to lead them into two houses, in one of which
the brethren were confined and in the other the sisters and
children. * * * Finding that all entreaties to save their lives
were to no purpose, and that some, more blood-thirsty than
others, were anxious to begin upon them, they united in beg-
ging a short delay, that they might prepare themselves for
death, which request was granted them. Then asking pardon
for whatever offence they had given, or grief they had occa-
sioned to each other, they knelt down, offering fervent prayers
to God their Saviour and kissing one another. Under a flood
of tears, fully resigned to his will, they sung praises unto him,
in the joyful hope that they would soon be relieved from
all pains and join their Redeemer in everlasting bliss. * * *
The murderers, impatient to make a beginning, came again
to them while they were singing, and, inquiring whether they
were now ready for dying, they were answered in the affirma-
tive, adding that they had commended their immortal souls to
God, who had given them the assurance in their hearts that he
would receive their souls. One of the party, now taking up
a cooper's mallet which lay in the house, saying, ' How exactly
this will answer for the purpose/ began with Abraham, and

MASSACRES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. 323

continued knocking down one" after another until be counted
fourteen that he had killed with bis own bands. He now
handed the instrument to one of his fellow-murderers, saying :
' My arm fails me. Go on in the same way. I think I have
done pretty well/ In another house, where mostly women
and children were confined, Judith, a remarkably pious aged
widow, was the first victim. After they had finished the hor-
rid deed they retreated to a small distance from the slaughter-
houses ; but, after a while, returning again to view the dead
bodies, and finding one of them (Abel), although scalped and
mangled, attempting to raise himself from the floor, they so
renewed their blows upon him that he never rose again. * * *
Thus ninety-six persons magnified the name of the Lord by
patiently meeting a cruel death. Sixty-two were grown per-
sons and thirty-four children. Many of them were born of
Christian parents in the society, and were among those who in
the year 1763 were taken under the protection of the Penn-
sylvania Government at the time of the riots of the Paxton
Boys. * * * Two boys, about fourteen years of age, almost
miraculously escaped from this massacre. One of them was
scalped and thrown down for dead. Eecovering himself, he
looked around ; but, with great presence of mind, lay down
again quickly, feigning death. In a few moments he saw the
murderers return, and again bury their hatchets in the head of
Abel, who was attempting to rise, though scalped and terribly
mangled. As soon as it was dark, Thomas crept over the dead
bodies and escaped to the woods, where he hid himself till night.
The other lad, who was confined in the house with the women,
contrived unnoticed to slip through a trap-door into the cellar,
where he lay concealed through the day, the blood all the
while running down through the floor in streams. At dark
he escaped through a small window and crept to the woods,
where he encountered Thomas, and the two made their way to-
gether, after incredible hardships, to Sandusky. To describe the

324 A CENTUJBY OP DISHONOR.

grief and terror of the Indian congregation on hearing that so
large a number of its members was so cruelly massacred is im-
possible. Parents wept and mourned for the loss of their chil-
dren, husbands for their wives, and wives for their husbands,
children for their parents, sisters for brothers, and brothers for
sisters, But they murmured not, nor did they call for ven-
geance on the murderers, but prayed for them. And their
greatest consolation was a full assurance that all their beloved
relatives were now at home in the presence of the Lord, and in
full possession of everlasting happiness."

An account of this massacre was given in the Pennsylvania
Gazette, of April 17th, 1782. It runs as follows :

" The people being greatly alarmed, and having received in-
telligence that the Indian towns on the Muskingum had not
moved, as reported, a number of men, properly provided, col-
lected and rendezvoused on the Ohio, opposite the Mingo Bot-
tom, with a desire to surprise the above towns.

" One hundred men swam the river, and proceeded to the
towns on the Muskingum, where the Indians had collected a
large quantity of provisions to supply their war-parties. They
arrived at the town in the night, undiscovered, attacked the In-
dians in their cabins, and so completely surprised them that
they killed and scalped upward of ninety—but a few making
their escape — about forty of whom were warriors, the rest old
women and children. About eighty horses fell into their hands,
which they loaded with the plunder, the greatest part furs and
skins, and returned to the Ohio without the loss of a man."

III. — Massacres of Apaches.

In less than one hundred years from this Gnadenhutten mas-
sacre an officer of the 'United States Army, stationed at Camp
Grant, in Arizona Territory, writes to his commanding officer the
following letter :

MASSACRES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. 825

"Camp Grant, Arizona Territory, May 17th, 1871..

" DEAR COLONEL, — Thanks for your kind letter of last week.
If I could see you and have a long talk, and answer all your
questions, I could come nearer giving you a clear idea of the
history of the Indians at this post than by any written account.
Having had them constantly under my observation for nearly
three months, and the care of them constantly on my mind,
certain things have become so much a matter of certainty to
me that I am liable to forget the amount of evidence neces-
sary to convince even the most unprejudiced mind that has not
been brought in contact with them. I will, however, try and
give you a connected account, and if it proves not sufficiently
full in detail, you may be sure all its positive statements will
be sustained by the testimony of all competent judges who
have been at this post and cognizant of the facts.

"Sometime in February a party of five old women came
in under a flag of truce, with a letter from Colonel Greene,
saying they were in search of a boy, the son of one of the
number taken prisoner near Salt River some months before.
This boy had been well cared for, and had become attached to
his new mode of life, and did not wish to return. The party
were kindly treated, rationed while here, and after two days
went away, asking permission to return. They came in about
eight days, I think, with a still larger number, with some arti-
cles for sale, to purchase manta, as they were nearly naked.
Before going away they said a young chief would like to come
in with a party and have a talk. This I encouraged, and in a
few days he came with about twenty-five of his band. He
stated in brief that he was chief of a band of about one hun-
dred and fifty of what were originally the Aravapa Apaches ;
that he wanted peace ; that he and his people had no home,
and could make none, as they were at all times apprehensive
of the approach of the cavalry. I told him he should go to
the White Mountains. He said, 'That is not our country, nei-

326 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

ther are they our people. We are at peace with them, but never
have mixed with them. Our fathers and their fathers before
them have lived in these mountains, and have raised corn in
this valley. We are taught to make mescal, our principal arti-
cle of food, and in summer and winter here we have a never-
failing supply, At the White Mountains there is none, and
without it now we get sick. Some of our people have been
in at Goodwin, and for a short time at the White Mountains ;
but they are not contented, and they all say, " Let us go to the
Aiavapa and make a final peace, and never break it." '

" I told him I had no authority to make any treaty with him,
or to promise him that he would be allowed a permanent home
here, but that he could bring in his band, and I would feed
them, and report his wishes to the Department commander.
In the mean time runners had been in from two other small
bands, asking the same privileges and giving the same reasons.
I made the same reply to all, and by about the llth of March
I had over three hundred here. I wrote a detailed account
of the \vhole matter, and sent it by express to Department
Head-quarters, asking for instructions, having only the general
policy of the Government in such cases for my guidance. Af-
ter waiting more than six weeks my letter was returned to
me without comment, except calling my attention to the fact
that it was not briefed properly. At first I put them in camp,
about half a mile from the post, and counted them, and issued
their rations every second day. The number steadily increased
until it reached the number of five hundred and ten,

" Knowing, as I did, that the responsibility of the whole
movement rested with me, and that, in case of any loss to the
Government coming of it, I should be the sufferer, I kept them .
continually under my observation till I came not only to know
the faces of the men, but of the women and children. They
were nearly naked, and needed everything in the way of cloth-
ing. I stopped the Indians from bringing hay, that I might

MASSACRES Otf INDIANS BY WHITES.

buy of these. I arranged a system of tickets with which to pay
them and encourage them j and to be sure that they were prop-
erly treated, I personally attended to the weighing. I also
made inquiries as to the kind of goods sold them, and prices.
This proved a perfect success ; not only the women and children
engaged in the work, but the men. The amount furnished by
them in about two months was nearly 300,000 pounds.

"During this time many small parties had been out with
passes for a certain number of days to burn mescal. These parties
were always mostly women, and I made myself sure by noting
the size of the party, and from the amount of mescal brought
in, that no treachery was intended. From the first I was deter-
mined to know not only all they did, but their hopes and in-
tentions. For this purpose I spent hours each day with them
in explaining to them the relations they should sustain to the
Government, and their prospects for the future in case of either
obedience or disobedience. I got from them in return much
of their habits of thought and rules of action. I made it a
point to tell them all they wished to know, and in the plainest
and most positive manner. They were readily obedient, and re-
markably quick of comprehension. They were happy and con-
tented, and took every opportunity to show it. They had sent
out runners to two other bands which were connected with them
by intermarriages, and had received promises from them that
they would come in and join them. I am confident, from all I
have been able to learn, that but for this unlooked-for butchery,
by this time we would have had one thousand persons, and at
least two hundred and fifty able-bodied men. As their num-
ber increased and the weather grew warmer, they asked and ob-
tained permission to move farther up the Aravapa to higher
ground and plenty of water, and opposite to the ground they
were proposing to plant. They were rationed every third day.
Captain Stanwood arrived about the first of April, and took
command of the post. He had received, while en route, verbal

328 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

instructions from General Stoneman to recognize and feed any
Indians he might find at the post as prisoners of war. Aftei
he had carefully inspected all things pertaining to their conduct
and treatment, he concluded to make no changes, hut had be-
come so veil satisfied of the integrity of their intentions that
he left on the 24th with his whole troop for a long scout in
the lower part of the Territory. The ranchmen in this vicinity
were friendly and kind to them, and felt perfectly secure, and
had agreed with me to employ them at a fair rate of pay to
harvest their barley. The Indians seemed to have lost their
characteristic anxiety to purchase ammunition, and had, in many
instances, sold their best bows and arrows. ' I made frequent
visits to their camp, and if any were absent from count, made
it my business to know why.

" Such was the condition of things up to the morning of the
30th of April. They had so won on me that, from my first
idea of treating them justly and honestly, as an officer of the
army, I had come to feel a strong personal interest in helping
to show them the way to a higher civilization. I had come
to feel respect for men who, ignorant and naked, were still
ashamed to lie or steal \ and fdr women who would work cheer-
fully like slaves to clothe themselves and children, but, untaught,
held their virtue above price. Aware of the lies industriously
circulated by the puerile press of the country, I was content
to know I had positive proof they were so.

" I had ceased to have any fears of their leaving here, and
only dreaded for them that they might be at any time ordered
to do so. They frequently expressed anxiety to hear from the
general, that they might have confidence to build for themselves
better houses ; but would always say, 'You know what we want,
and if you can't see him you can write, and do for us what you
can/ It is possible that, during this time, individuals from here
had visited other bands \ but that any number had ever been
out to assist in any marauding expedition I know is false. Ox

MASSACRES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. 829

the morning of April 30th I was at breakfast at 7.30 o'clock,
when a despatch was brought to me by a sergeant of Company
P, 21st Infantry, from Captain Penn, commanding Camp Low-
ell, informing me that a large party had left Tucson on the 28th
with the avowed purpose of killing all the Indians at this post.
I immediately sent the two interpreters, mounted, to the Indian
camp, with orders to tell the chiefs the exact state of things,
and for them to bring their entire party inside the post. As I
had no cavalry, and but about fifty infantry (all recruits), and
no other officer, I could not leave the post .to go to their de-
fence. My messengers returned in about an hour with intelli-
gence that they could find no living Indians.

"Their camp was burning, and the ground strewed with their
dead and mutilated women and children. I immediately mount-
ed a party of about twenty soldiers and citizens, and sent them
with the post surgeon with a wagon to bring in the wounded,
if any could be found. The party returned late in the after-
noon, having found no wounded, and without having been able
to communicate with any of the survivors. Early the next
morning I took a similar party with spades and shovels, and
went out and buried the dead immediately in and about the
camp. I had, the day before, offered the interpreters, or any
one who would do so, $100 to go to the mountains and com-
municate with them, and convince them that no officer or sol-
dier of the United States Government had been concerned in
the vile transaction j and, failing in this, I thought the act of
caring for their dead would be an evidence to them of our sym-
pathy, at least, and the conjecture proved correct ; for while
we were at the work, many of them came to the spot and
indulged in expressions of grief too wild and terrible to be
described.

" That evening they began to come in from all directions, sin-
gly and in small parties, so changed as hardly to be recognizable
in the forty-eight hours during which they had neither eaten

330 A CENTUET OP DISHONOB.

nor slept. Many of the men, whose families had all been killed,
when I spoke to them and expressed sympathy for them, were
obliged to turn away, unable to speak, and too proud to show
their grief. The women whose children had been killed or
stolen were convulsed with grief, and looked to me appealingly,
as if I were their last hope on earth. Children, who two days
before had been full of frolic, kept at a distance, expressing
wondering horror.

u I did what I could : I fed them, talked to them, and lis-
tened patiently to their accounts. I sent horses to the moun-
tains to bring in two badly wounded women, one shot through
the left leg, one with an arm shattered. These were attended
to, and are doing well, and will recover.

"Theii camp was surrounded and attacked at daybreak.
So sudden and unexpected was it, that I found a number of
women shot while asleep beside their bundles of hay, which
they had collected to bring in on that morning. The wounded
who were unable to get away had their brains beaten out
with clubs or stones, while some were shot full of arrows after
having been mortally wounded by gun-shots. The bodies were
all stripped. Of the number buried, one was an old man, and
one was a well-grown boy ; all the rest women and children.
Of the whole number killed and missing — about one hundred
and twenty-five — only eight were men. It has been said that
the men were not there : they were all there. On the 28th
we counted one hundred and twenty-eight men, a small num-
ber being absent for mescal, all of whom have since been in.
I have spent a good deal of time with them since the affair,
and have been astonished at their continued unshaken faith in
me, and their perfectly clear understanding of their misfor-
tune. They say, ' We know there are a great many white men
and Mexicans who do not wish us to live at peace. "We know
that the Papagos would never have come out against us at
this time unless they had been persuaded to do so.1 What

MASSACKBS OF INDIANS BY WHITES. 331

they do not understand is, while they are at peace and are
conscious of no wrong intent, that they should be murdered.

" One of the chiefs said : * I no longer want to live ; my
women and children have been killed before my face, and I
have been unable to defend them. Most Indians in my place
would take a knife and cut their throats; but I will live
to show these people that all they have done, and all they
can do, shall not make me break faith with you so long aa
you will stand by us and defend us, in a language we know
nothing of, to a great governor we never have and never shall
see.'

" About their captives they say : * Get them back for us.
Our little boys will grow up slaves, and our girls, as soon as
they are large enough, will be diseased prostitutes, to get
money for whoever owns them. Our women work hard, and
are good women, and they and our children have no diseases.
Our dead you cannot bring to life ; but those that are living
we gave to you, and we look to you, who can write and talk
and have soldiers, to get them back.'

" I assure you it is no easy task to convince them of my
zeal when they see so little being done. I have pledged my
word to them that I never would rest, day or night, until they
should have justice, and just now I would as soon leave the
army as to be ordered away from them, or be obliged to order
them away from here. But you well know the difficulties in
the way. You know that parties who would engage in murder
like this could and would make statements and multiply affi-
davits without end in their justification. I know you will use
your influence on the right side. I believe, with them, this
may be made either a means of making good citizens of them
and their children, or of driving them out to a hopeless war of
extermination. They ask to be allowed to live here in their
old homes, where nature supplies nearly all their wants. They
ask for a fair and impartial trial of their faith, and they ask

332 A CENTURY OP DISHONOR.

that all their captive childen may be returned to them. la
their demand unreasonable ] "

This letter was written to Colonel T. G. C. Lee, U.S.A., by
Lieut. Eoyal E. Whitman, 3d U.S. Cavalry. It is published
in the Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners for 1871.
There is appended to it the following affidavit of the post
surgeon at Camp Grant :

"On this 16th day of September, 1871, personally appeared
Conant B. Erierley, who, being duly sworn according to law,
deposeth and saith : c I am acting-assistant surgeon, U.S.A.,
at Camp Grant, Arizona, where I arrived April 25th, 1871, and
reported to the commanding officer for duty as medical officer.
Some four hundred Apache Indians were at that time held as
prisoners of war by the military stationed at Camp Grant, and
during the period intervening between April 25th and 30th I
saw the Indians every day. They seemed very well contented,
and were "busily employed in bringing in hay, which they sold
for manta and such little articles as they desired outside the
Government ration, April 29th Chiquita and some of the
other chiefs were at the post, and asked for seeds and for some
hoes, stating that they had ground cleared and ready for plant-
ing. They were told that the garden-seeds had been sent for,
and would be up from Tucson in a few days. They then left,
and I saw nothing more of them until after the killing.

" ' Sunday morning I heard a rumor that the Indians had
been attacked, and learned from Lieutenant Whitman that he
had sent the two interpreters to the Indian camp to warn the
Indians, and bring them down where they could be protected,
if possible. Tha interpreters returned and stated that the at-
tack had already been made and the Indians dispersed, and
that the attacking party were returning.

" ' Lieutenant Whitman then ordered me to go to the Indian
camp to render medical assistance, and bring down any wound-
ed I might find. I took twelve men and a wagon, and pro-

MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES. 333

Deeded without delay to the scene of the murder. On my ar-
rival I found that I should have but little use for the wagon
or medicine. The work had been too thoroughly done. The
camp had been fired, and the dead bodies of twenty-one wo-
men and children were lying scattered over the ground j those
who had been wounded in the first instance had their brains
beaten out with stones. Two of the squaws had been first rav-
ished, and then shot dead. One infant of some two months
was shot twice, and one leg nearly hacked off. * * * I know
from my own personal observations that, during the time the
Indians were in, after my arrival, they were rationed every
three days, and Indians absent had to be accounted for ; their
faces soon became familiar to me, and I could at once tell when
any strange Indian came in.

"* And I furthermore state that I have been among nearly
all the tribes on the Pacific coast, and that I have never seen
any Indians who showed the intelligence, honesty, and desire
to learn manifested by these Indians. I came among them
greatly prejudiced against them; but, after being with them, I
was compelled to admit that they were honest in their inten-
tions, and really desired peace.

" « C. B. BEIEBLEY,
" ' Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A.' *

This is not the only instance of cruel outrage committed by
white men on the Apaches. In the Eeport of the Board of
Indian Commissioners for 1871 is the following letter from
one of the Arizona pioneers, Mr. J. H. Lyman, of Northamp-
ton, Mass. Mr. Lyman spent the years of 1840-'41 among the
Apaches, and thus briefly relates an occurrence which took
place at a time when they were friendly and cordial to all
Americans going among them :

"The Indians were then, as now, hostile to the Mexicans of
Sonora, and they were constantly making raids into the State

334 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.

and driving off the cattle. The Mexicans feared them, and
were unable to meet them man to man. At that time Ameri-
can trappers found the beaver very abundant about the head-
waters of the Gila River, among those rich mountain valleys
where the Apaches had, and still have, their secure retreats.
At the tune I speak of there wore two companies of trappers
in that region. One of the companies, about seventeen men,
was under a captain named Johnson. The other company con-
sisted of thirty men, I think. I was trapping on another head
of the Gila, several miles north. The valleys were full of
Apaches, but all peaceful toward the white men, both Indians
and whites visiting each other's camps constantly and fear-
lessly, with no thought of treachery or evil. Besides the
Mexicans, the only enemies of the Apaches were the Piutes
and Navajoes, in the north-west. But here in their fastnesses
they felt safe from all foes.

" One day Johnson concluded to go down into Sonora on
a spree, as was occasionally the way with mountain-men. He
there saw the Governor of Sonora, who, knowing that he had
the confidence of the Indians, offered him an ounce of gold
for every Apache scalp he would bring him. The bargain was
struck. Johnson procured a small mountain howitzer, and then,
with supplies for his party, returned to his camp. Previous to
entering it he loaded his howitzer with a quantity of bullets.
On approaching the valley he was met by the Indians, who
joyfully welcomed him back, and proceeded at once to prepare
the usual feast. While they were boiling and roasting their
venison and bear meat, and were gathered in a small group
around the fire, laughing and chatting in anticipation of the
pleasure they expected in entertaining their guests, Johnson
told those of his party who had remained behind of the offer
of the governor, and with such details of temptation as easily
overcame any scruples such men might have.

"As they were all armed with rifles, which were always in

MCASSACBES OP INDIANS BY WHITES. 835

hand day and night, together with pistols in belt, they needed
no preparation. The howitzer, which the Indians might have
supposed to be a small keg of whiskey, was placed on the
ground and pointed at the group of warriors, squaws, and little
children round the fire, watching the roasting meal.

" While they were thus engaged, with hearts full of kindly
feelings toward their white friends, Johnson gave the signal.
The howitzer was discharged, sending its load of bullets scat-
tering and tearing through the mass of miserable human be-
ings, and nearly all who were not stricken down were shot by
the rifles. A very few succeeded in escaping into the ravine,
and fled over the dividing ridge into the northern valleys,
where they met others of their tribe, to whom they told the
horrible story.

" The Apaches at once showed that they could imitate their
more civilized brothers. Immediately a band of them went in
search of the other company of trappers, who, of course, were
utterly unconscious of Johnson's infernal work. They were
attacked, unprepared, and nearly all killed \ and then the story
that the Apaches were treacherous and cruel went forth into
all the land, but nothing of the wrongs they had received."

Is it to be wondered at that the Apaches became one of the
most hostile and dangerous tribes on the Pacific coast ?

These are but four massacres out of scores, whose history, if
written, would prove as clearly as do these, that, hi the long
contest between white men and Indians, the Indian h«s not
always been the aggressor, and that treachery and crue? y are
by no means exclusively Indian traits.

336 A CENTUBY OF DISHOtfOB.

CHAPTER X.

CONCLUSION.

THEBI are within the limits of the United States between
two hundred and fifty and" three hundred thousand Indians,
exclusive of those in Alaska. The names of the different
tribes and bands, as entered in the statistical tables of the In-
<lian Office Eeports, number nearly three hundred. One of the
most careful estimates which have been made of their numbers
and localities gives them as follows : " In Minnesota and States
east of the Mississippi, about 32,500 ; in Nebraska, Kansas,
and the Indian Territory, 70,650 ; in the Territories of Da-
kota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, 65,000 j in Nevada and
the Territories of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona,
84,000 ; and on the Pacific slope, 48,000."

Of these, 130,000 are self-supporting on their own reserva-
tions, "receiving nothing from the Government except interest
on their own moneys, or annuities granted them in considera-
tion of the cession of their lands to the United States." *

This fact alone would seem sufficient to dispose forever of
the accusation, so persistently brought against the Indian, that
he will not work.

Of the remainder, 84,000 are partially supported by the
Government — the interest money due them and their annui-
ties, as provided by treaty, being inadequate to their subsist-
ence on the reservations where they are confined. In many
cases, however, these Indians furnish a large part of their sup-

* Annual Report of Indian Commissioner for 1872.

CONCLUSION. 337

port — the White Kiver TJtes, for instance, who are reported by
the Indian Bureau as getting sixty-six per cent, of their living
by "root-digging, hunting, and fishing;" the Squaxin band, in
"Washington Territory, as earning seventy-five per cent., and the
Chippewas of Lake Superior as earning fifty per cent, in the
tsame way. These facts also would' seem to dispose of the ac-
cusation that the Indian will not work.

There are about 55,000 who never visit an agency, over
whom the Government does not pretend to have either control
or care. These 55,000 " subsist by hunting, fishing, on roots,
nuts, berries, etc., and by begging and stealing ;" and this also
seems to dispose of the accusation that the Indian will not
"work for a living." There remains a small portion, about
31,000, that are entirely subsisted by the Government.

There is not among these three hundred bands of Indians
one which has not suffered cruelly at the hands either of the
Government or of white settlers. The poorer, the more insig-
nificant, the more helpless the band, the more certain the cru-
elty and outrage to which they have been subjected. This is
especially true of the bands on the Pacific slope. These Indians
found themselves of a sudden surrounded by and caught up in
the great influx of gold-seeking settlers, as helpless creatures
on a shore are caught up in a tidal wave. There was not time
for the Government to make treaties ; not even time for com-
munities to make laws. The tale of the wrongs, the oppres-
sions, the murders of the Pacific-slope Indians in the last thirty
years would be a volume by itself, and is too monstrous to be
believed.

It makes little difference, however, where one opens the rec-
ord of the history of the Indians ; every page and every year
has its dark stain. The story of one tribe is the story of all,
varied only by differences of time and place ; but neither time
nor place makes any difference in the main facts. Colorado is
as greedy and unjust in 1880 as was Georgia in 1830, and Ohio

338 A CENTURY OF DISHONOB.

in 1795 ; and the United States Government breaks promises
now as deftly as then, and with an added ingenuity from long

practice.

One of its strongest supports in so doing is the wide-spread
sentiment among the people of dislike to the Indian, of impa-
tience with his presence as a " harrier to civilization/' and dis-
trust of it as a possihle danger. The old tales of the frontier
life, with its horrors of Indian warfare, have gradually, "by two
or three generations' telling, produced in the average mind
something like an hereditary instinct of unquestioning and un-
reasoning aversion which it is almost impossible to dislodge or

soften.

There are hundreds of pages of unimpeachable testimony on
the side of the Indian; but it goes for nothing, is set down as
sentimentalism or partisanship, tossed aside and forgotten.

President after president has appointed commission after
commission to inquire into and report upon Indian affairs, and
to make suggestions as to the best methods of managing them.
The reports are filled with eloquent statements of wrongs done
to the Indians, of perfidies on the part of the Government ;
they counsel, as earnestly as word? can, a trial of the simple
and unperplexing expedients of telling truth, keeping prom-
ises, making fair bargains, dealing justly in all ways and all
things. These reports are bound up with the Government's An-
nual Reports, and that is the end of them. It would probably
be no exaggeration to say that not one American citizen out of
ten thousand ever sees them or knows that they exist, and yet
any one of them, circulated throughout the country, read by
the right-thinking, right-feeling men and women of this land,
would be of itself a " campaign document " that would ini-
tiate a revolution which would not subside until the Indians'
wrongs were, so far as is now left possible, righted.

In 1869 President Grant appointed a commission of nine
men, representing the influence and philanthropy of six leading

CONCLUSION. 330

States, to visit tlie different Indian reservations, and to "exam-
ine all matters appertaining to Indian affairs."

In the report of this commission are such paragraphs as the
following : " To assert that ' the Indian will not work ' is as
true ^as it would be to say that the white man will not work.

" Why should the Indian be expected to plant corn, fence
lands, build houses, or do anything but get food from day to
day, when experience has taught him that the product of his
labor will be seized by the white man to-morrow ? The most
industrious white man would become a drone under similar
circumstances. Nevertheless, many of the Indians " (the com-
missioners might more forcibly have said 130,000 of the In-
dians) " are already at work, and furnish ample refutation of
the assertion that ' the Indian will not work/ There is no
escape from the inexorable logic of facts.

" The history of the Government connections with the In-
dians is a shameful record of broken treaties and unfulfilled
promises. The history of the border white man's connection
with the Indians is a sickening record of murder, outrage, rob-
bery, and wrongs committed by the former, as the rule, and
occasional savage outbreaks and unspeakably barbarous deeds
of retaliation by the latter, as the exception.

" Taught by the Government that they had rights entitled
to respect, when those rights have been assailed by the rapac-
ity of the white man, the arm which should have been raised
to protect them has ever been ready to sustain the aggressor.

" The testimony of some of the highest military officers of
the United States is on record to the effect that, in our Indian
wars, almost without exception, the first aggressions have been
made by the white man ; and the assertion is supported by ev-
ery civilian of reputation who has studied the subject. In ad-
dition to the class of robbers and outlaws who find impunity
in their nefarious pursuits on the frontiers, there is a large
class of professedly reputable men who use every means in

340 A CENTUEY OP DISHOKOE-

their power to bring on Indian wars for the sake of the profit
to be realized from the presence of troops and the expenditure
of Government funds in their midst. They proclaim death to
the Indians at all times in words and publications, making no
distinction between the innocent and the guilty. They irate
the lowest class of men to the perpetration of the darkest
deeds against their victims, and as judges and jurymen shield
them from the justice due to their crimes. Every crime com-
mitted by a white man against an Indian is concealed or pal-
liated. Every offence committed by an Indian against a white
man is borne on the wings of the post or the telegraph to the
remotest corner of the land, clothed with all the horrors which
the reality or imagination can throw around it. Against such
influences as these the people of the United States need to be
warned,"

To assume that it would be easy, or by any one sudden
stroke of legislative policy possible, to undo the mischief and
hurt of the long past, set the Indian policy of the country right
for the future, and make the Indians at once safe and happy,
is the blunder of a hasty and uninformed judgment. The no-
tion which seems to be growing more prevalent, that simply
to make all Indians at once citizens of the United States would
be a sovereign and instantaneous panacea for all their ills and
all the Government's perplexities, is a very inconsiderate one.
To administer complete citizenship of a sudden, all round, to
all Indians, barbarous and civilized alike, would be as grotesque
a blunder as to dose them all round with any one medicine,
irrespective of the symptoms and needs of their diseases. It
would kill more than it would cure. Nevertheless, it is true,
as was well stated by one of the superintendents of Indian
Affairs in 1857, that, "so long as they are not citizens of the
United States, their rights of property must remain insecure
against invasion. .-The doors of the federal tribunals being
barred against them while wards and dependents, they can

CONCLUSION. 341

only partially exercise the rights of free government, or give to
those who make, execute, and construe the few laws they are
allowed to enact, dignity sufficient to make them respectable.
While they continue individually to gather the crumbs that
fall from the table of the United States, idleness, improvix
dence, and indebtedness will be the rule, and industry, thrift,
and freedom from debt the exception. The utter absence of
individual title to particular lands deprives every one among
them of the chief incentive to labor and exerti9n — the very
mainspring on which the prosperity of a people depends."

All judicious plans and measures for their safety and salva-
tion must embody provisions for their becoming citizens as
fast as they are fit, and must protect them till then in every
right and particular in which our laws protect other "persons"
who are not citizens.

There is a disposition in a certain class of minds to be
impatient with any protestation against wrong which is unac-
companied or unprepared with a quick and exact scheme of
remedy. This is illogical. When pioneers in a new country
find a tract of poisonous and swampy wilderness to be re-
claimed, they do not withhold their hands from fire and axe
till they see clearly which way roads should run, where good
water will spring, and what crops will best grow on the re-
deemed land. They first clear the swamp. So with this
poisonous and baffling part of the domain of our national af-
fairs— let us first " clear the swamp."

However great perplexity and difficulty there may be in the
details of any and every plan possible for doing at this late
day anything like justice to the Indian, however hard it may
be for good statesmen and good men to agree upon the things
that ought to be done, there certainly is, or ought to be, no
perplexity whatever, no difficulty whatever, in agreeing upon
certain things that ought not to be done, and which must
cease to be done before the first steps can be taken toward

342 A CENTUM 0*

righting the wrongs, curing the ills, and "wiping out the dis-
grace to us of the present condition of our Indians.

Cheating, robbing, breaking promises — these three are clearly
things which must cease to be done. One more thing, also,
and that is the refusal of the protection of the law to the
Indian's rights of property, "of life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness."

When these four things have ceased to be done, time, states-
manship, philanthropy, and Christianity can slowly and surely
do the rest. Till these four things have ceased to "be done,
statesmanship and philanthropy alike must work in vain, and
even Christianity can reap but small harvest.

APPENDIX.

i.

THE SAND CREEK "MASSACRE.

THE following letters were printed in the New York Tribune in
the winter of 1879. They are of interest, not only as giving a
minute account of one of the most atrocious massacres ever pei--
petrated, but also as showing the sense of justice which is to be
found in the frontiersman's mind to-day. That men, exasperated
by atrocities and outrages, should have avenged themselves with
hot haste and cruelty, was, perhaps, only human; but that men
should be found, fifteen years later, apologizing for, nay, justifying
the cruel deed, is indeed a matter of marvel.

LETTER I.

In June, 1864, Governor Evans, of Colorado, sent out a circular
to the Indians of the Plains, inviting all friendly Indians to come
into the neighborhood of the forts, and be protected by the United
States troops. Hostilities and depredations had been committed
by some bands 'of Indians, and the Government was about to
make war upon them. This circular says:

" In some instances they (the Indians) have attacked and killed
soldiers, and murdered peaceable citizens. For this the Great
Father is angry, and will certainly hunt them out and punish
them ; but he does not want to injure those who remain friendly
to the whites. He desires to protect and take care of them. For
this purpose I direct that all friendly Indians keep away from
those who are at war, and go to places of safety. Friendly Arapa-
hoes and Cheyennes belonging to the Arkansas River will go to
Major Colby, United States Agent at Fort Lyon, who will give
them provisions and show them a place of safety."

In consequence of this proclamation of the governor, a band of

344 APPENDIX.

Cheyennes, several hundred in number, came in and settled down
near Fort Lyon. After a time they were requested to move to
Sand Creek, about forty miles from Fort Lyon, where they were
still guaranteed " perfect safety " and the protection of the Gov-
ernment. Kations of food were issued to them from time to time.
On the 27th of November, Colonel J. M. Chiviugton, a member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Denver, and Colonel of the
First Colorado Cavalry, led his regiment by a forced march to
Fort Lyon, induced some of the United States troops to join him,
and fell upon this camp of friendly Indians at daybreak. The
chief, White Antelope, always known as friendly to the whites,
came running toward the soldiers, holding up his hands and cry-
ing " Stopl stop! " in English. When he saw that there was no
mistake, that it was a deliberate attack, he folded his arms and
waited till he was shot down. The United States flag was float-
ing over the lodge of Black Kettle, the head chief of the tribe;
below it was tied also a small white flag as additional security — a
precaution Black Kettle had been advised by United States offi-
cers to take if he met troops on the Plains. In Major Wynkoop's
testimony, given before the committee appointed by Congress to
investigate this massacre, is the following passage :

" Women and children were killed and scalped, children shot
at their mothers' breasts, and all the bodies mutilated in the most
horrible manner. * * * The dead bodies of females profaned in
such a manner that the recital is sickening, Colonel J. M. Chiv-
ington all the time inciting his troops to their diabolical out-
rages."

Another man testified as to what he saw on the 30th of Novem-
ber, three days after the battle, as follows :

" I saw a man dismount from his horse and cut the ear from
the body of an Indian, and the scalp from the head of another. I
saw a number of children killed ; they had bullet-holes in them ;
one child had been cut with some sharp instrument across its side.
I saw another that both ears had been cut off . * * * I saw several
of the Third Regiment cut off fingers to get the rings off them.
I saw Major Sayre scalp a dead Indian. The scalp had a long
tail of silver hanging to it."

Robert Bent testified :

" I saw one squaw lying on the bank, whose leg had been bro-
ken. A soldier came up to her with a drawn sabre. She raised
her arm to protect herself ; he struck, .breaking her arm. She
rolled over, and raised her other arm; he struck, breaking that,

APPENDIX. 345

and then left her without killing her. I saw one squaw cut open,
with an unborn child lying by her side."

Major Anthony testified :

" There was one little child, probably three years old, just big
enough to walk through the sand. The Indians had gone ahead,
and this little child was behind, following after them. The little
fellow was perfectly naked, travelling in the sand. I saw one man
get off his horse at a distance of about seventy-five yards and
draw up his rifle and fire. He missed the child. Another man
came up and said, ' Let me try the son of a b — . I can hit him.'
He got down off his horse, kneeled down, and fired at the little
child, but he missed him. A third man came up, and made a
similar remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped."

The Indians were not able to make much resistance, as only a
part of them were armed, the United States officers having re-
quired them to give up their guns. Luckily they had kept a few.

When this Colorado regiment of demons returned to Denver
they were greeted with an ovation. The Denver News said : " All
acquitted themselves well. Colorado soldiers have again covered
themselves with glory; " and at a theatrical performance given in
the city, these scalps taken from Indians were held up and ex-
hibited to the audience, which applauded rapturously.

After listening, day after day, to such testimonies as these I
have quoted, and others so much worse that I may not \vrite and
The Tribune could not print the words needful to tell them, the
committee reported: " It is difficult to believe that beings in the
form of men, and disgracing the uniform of United States sol-
diers and officers, could commit or countenance the commission
of such acts of cruelty and barbarity; " and of Colonel Chiving-
ton: u He deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly
massacre, which would have disgraced the veriest, savage among
those who were the victims of his cruelty."

This was just fifteen years ago, no more. Shall we apply the
same rule of judgment to the white men of Colorado that the
Government is now applying to the Utes? There are 130,000 in-
habitants of Colorado; hundreds of them had a hand in this
massacre, and thousands in cool blood applauded it when it was
done. There are 4000 Utes in Colorado. Twelve of them, des-
perate, guilty men, have committed murder and rape, and three
or four hundred of them did, in the convenient phrase of our
diplomacy, " go to war against the Government; " z. e., they at-
tempted, by force of arms, to restrain the entrance upon their own

15

346 APPENDIX.

lands — lands bought, owned and paid for — of soldiers thai; the
Government had sent there, to be ready to make war upon them,
in case the agent thought it best to do so ! This is the plain Eng-
lish of it. This is the plain, naked truth of it.

And now the Secretary of the Interior has stopped the issue of
rations to 1000 of these helpless creatures ; rations, be it under-
stood, which are not, and never were, a charity, but are the Utes'
rightful dues, on account of lands by them sold; dues which the
Government promised to pay " annually forever." Will the Amer-
ican people justify this? There is such a thing as the conscience
of a nation — as a nation's sense of justice. Can it not be roused
to speak now? Shall we sit still, warm and well fed, in our
homes, while five hundred women and little children are being
slowly starved in the bleak, barren wildernesses of Colorado?
Starved, not because storm, or blight, or drouth has visited their
country and cut off their crops; not because pestilence has laid
its hand on them and slain the hunters who brought them meat,
but because it lies within the promise of one man, by one word,
to deprive them of one-half their necessary food for as long a term
of years as he may please ; and " the Secretary of the Interior can-
not consistently feed a tribe that has gone to war against the
Government."

We read in the statutes of the United States that certain things
may be done by " executive order " of the President. Is it not
time for a President to interfere when hundreds of women and
children are being starved in his Republic by the order of one
man ? Colonel J. M. Chivington's method was less inhuman by
far. To be shot dead is a mercy, and a grace for which we would
all sue, if to be starved to death were our only other alternative.

New York, Jan. 31st, 1880. H. H.

This letter drew from the former editor of the Rocky Mountain
News, a Denver newspaper, the following reply :

LETTER EC.
To the Editor of the Tribune:

SIR,— In your edition of yesterday appears an article, under the
above caption, which arraigns the people of Colorado as a com-
munity of barbarous murderers, and finally elevates them above
the present Secretary of the Interior, thereby placing the latter
gentleman in a most unenviable light if the charges averred be
true. < < The Sand Creek Massacre " of 1864 is made the text and

APPENDIX. 347

burden of the article; its application is to the present condition
of the White River band of Utes in Colorado. Quotations are
given from the testimony gathered, and the report made thereon
by a committee of Congress charged with a so-called investiga-
tion of the Sand Creek affair. That investigation was made for a
certain selfish purpose. It was to break down and ruin certain
men. Evidence was taken upon one side only. It was largely
false, and infamously partial. There was no answer for the de-
fence.

The Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians assembled at Sand Creek
were not under the protection of a United States fort. A few of
them had been encamped about Fort Lyon and drawing supplies
therefrom, but they had gradually disappeared and joined the
main camp on Dry Sandy, forty miles from the fort, separated
from it by a waterless desert, and entirely beyond the limit of its
control or observation. While some of the occupants were still,
no doubt, occasional visitors at the fort, and applicants for sup-
plies and ammunition, most of the warriors were engaged in raid-
ing the great Platte Eiver Road, seventy-five miles farther north,
robbing and burning trains, stealing cattle and horses, robbing
and destroying the United States mails, and killing white people.
During the summer and fall they had murdered over fifty of the
citizens of Colorado. They had stolen and destroyed provisions
and merchandise, and driven away stock worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars. They had interrupted the mails, and for
thirty-two consecutive days none were allowed to pass then- lines.
When satiated with murder and arson, and loaded with plunder,
they would retire to their sacred refuge on Sand Creek to rest
and refresh themselves, recruit their wasted supplies of ammuni-
tion from Fort Lyon— begged under the garb of gentle, peaceful
savages — and then return to the road to relieve their tired com-
rades, and riot again in carnage and robbery. These are facts;
and when the " robbers' roost " was cleaned out, on that sad
but glorious 27th day of November, 1864, they were sufficiently
proven. Scalps of white men not yet dried ; letters and photo-
graphs stolen from the mails; bills of lading and invoices of
goods; bales and bolts of the goods themselves, addressed to
merchants in Denver; half- worn clothing of white women and
children, and many other articles of like character, were found in
that poetical Indian camp, and recovered by the Colorado sol-
diers. They were brought to Denver, and those were the scalps
exhibited in the theatre of that city. There was also an Indian

348 APPENDIX.

saddle-blanket entirely fringed around the edges -with white
women's scalps, with the long, fair hair attached. There was
an Indian saddle over the pommel of which was stretched skin
stripped from the body of a white woman. Is it any wonder that
soldiers flushed with victory, after one of the hardest campaigns
ever endured by men, should indulge — some of them — in unwar-
ranted atrocities after finding such evidence of barbarism, and
while more than forty of their comrades were weltering in their
own blood upon the field?

If " H. H." had been in Denver in the early part of that sum-
mer, when the bloated, festering bodies of the Hungate family —
father, mother, and two babes — were drawn through the streets
naked in an ox- wagon, cut, mutilated, and scalped — the work of
those same red fiends who were so justly punished at Sand Creek;
if, later, " H. H." had seeu an upright and most estimable business
man go crazy over the news of his son's being tortured to death
a hundred miles down the Platte, as I did ; if " H. H." had seen
one-half the Colorado homes made desolate that fateful season,
and a tithe of the tears that .were caused to flow, I think there
would have been one little word of excuse for the people of Colo-
rado— more than a doubtful comparison with an inefficient and
culpable Indian policy. Bear in mind that Colorado had no rail-
roads then. Her supplies reached her by only one road — along
the Platte— in wagons drawn by oxen, mules, or horses. That
line was in full possession of the enemy. Starvation stared us in
the face. Hardly a party went or came without some persons be-
ing killed. In some instances whole trains were cut off and de-
stroyed. Sand Creek saved Colorado, and taught the Indians the
most salutary lesson they had ever learned. And now, after fif-
teen years, and here in the shadow of the Nation's Capitol, with
the spectre of " H. H.'s " condemnation staring me in the face, I
am neither afraid nor ashamed to repeat the language then used
by The Denver News : « All acquitted themselves well. Colorado
soldiers have again covered themselves with glory."

Thus much of history is gone over by " H. H." to present in
true dramatic form the deplorable condition of the White River
Utes, 1000 in number, who are now suffering the pangs of hunger
and the discomfort of cold in the wilds of Western Colorado,
without any kind agent to issue rations, provide blankets, or
build fires for them. It is really too bad. A painful dispensa-
tion of Providence has deprived them of their best friend, and
they are desolate and bereaved. He placed his life and its best

APPENDIX. 349

efforts, his unbounded enthusiasm for their good, his great Chris-
tian heart — all at their service. But an accident befell him, and
he is no more. The coroner's jury that sat upon his remains
found that his dead body had a barrel stave driven into his
mouth, a log-chain around his neck, by which it had been
dragged about like a dead hog, and sundry bullet-holes through
his body. The presumption was that from the effect of some one
of these accidents he died ; and, alas 1 he is no longer to serve out
weekly rations to his flock of gentle Utes. There is no sorrow
over his death or the desolation it wrought, but there is pity,
oceans of pity, for the Indians who are hungry and cold. True,
at the time he died they took the flour, the pork, and salt, and
coffee, and sugar, and tobacco, and blankets, and all the other
supplies that he would have issued to them through all this long
winter had he lived. With his care these would, have lasted un-
til spring, and been sufficient for their wants; but, without it,
" H. H." is suspicious that they are all gone, and yet it is but just
past the middle of winter. Can " H. H." tell why this is thus?
It is also true that they drove away the large herd of cattle from
the increase of which that same unfortunate agent and his prede-
cessors had supplied them with beef for eleven years past, and yet
the consumption did not keep pace with the natural increase.
They took them all, and are presumed to have them now. True,
again, they had at the beginning of winter, or at the period of the
melancholy loss of their best friend, about 4000 horses that were
rolling fat, and three acres of dogs— not bad food in an emer-
gency, or for an Indian thanksgiving feast — some of which should
still remain.

THE WHOLE WHITE RIVER BAND GUILTY.

But " H. H." intimates that there is an alleged excuse for with-
holding rations from these poor, persecuted red angels. " Twelve "
of them have been bad, and the tyrant at the head of the Interior
Department is systematically starving all of the 1000 who con-
stitute the band, and their 4000 horses, and 1800 cattle, and three
acres of dogs, and six months' supplies, because those twelve bad
Indians cannot conscientiously pick themselves out and be offered
np as a burnt-offering and a sacrifice to appease the wrath of an
outraged and partly civilized nation. This is the present indict-
ment, and the Secretary and the President are commanded to
stand up and plead " Guilty or not guilty, but you know you are
guilty, d— n you." Now I challenge and defy "H. H.," or any

350 APPENDIX.

other person living, to pick out or name twelve White River male
TJtes, over sixteen years of age, who were not guilty, directly or
indirectly, as principals or accomplices before the fact, in the
Thornburgh attack or in the Agency massacre. I know these
Indians well enough to know that these attacks were perfectly
understood and deliberately planned. I cannot be made to be-
lieve that a single one of them, of common-sense and intelligence,
was ignorant of what was to take place, and that knowledge ex-
tended far beyond the White River band. There were plenty of
recruits from both the Los Pinos and the Uiutali bands. In with-
holding supplies from the White River Utes the Secretary of the
Interior is simply obeying the law. He cannot, except upon his
own personal responsibility, issue supplies to a hostile Indian
tribe, and the country will hold him accountable for a departure
from his line of duty. Inferential^ the Indians are justified by
"H. E." in their attack upon Thornburgh's command. Their
object was to defend "their own lands— lands bought, owned,
and paid for." Bought of whom, pray ? Paid for by whom ?
To whom was payment made? The soldiers were making no
attack; they contemplated none. The agent had no authority
to order an attack. He could not proclaim war. He could have
no control whatever over the troops. But his life was in danger.
The honor of his family was at stake. He asked for protection.
" H. H." says he had no right to it. His life and the honor of
his aged wife and of his virgin daughter are gone, and " H. H."
is the champion of fiends who wrought the ruin.

WM. N. BYERS.
Washington, D. 0., Feb. 6th, 1880.

The most fitting reply to the assertions in this extraordinary
document was by still further citations from the sworn testimony
given before the Congressional committees— evidence with which
volumes could have been filled.

LETTER ITT.
To flie Editor of the Tribune:

SIR,— In reply to the letter in Sunday's Tribune, headed " The
Starving Utes," I would like to place before the readers of The
Tribune some extracts from sworn testimony taken in Colorado
on the subject of the Sand Creek massacre. The writer of this
letter says:

"The Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians assembled at Sand
Creek were not under the protection of a United States fort.''

APPENDIX. 351

The following testimony is that of Lieutenant Craven, Senate
Document, vol. ii., 1866-67, p. 46:

"I had some conversation with Major Downing, Lieutenant
Maynard, and Colonel Chivington. I stated to them my feelings
in regard to the matter — that I believed it to be murder — and
stated the obligations that we of Major Wynkoop's command
were under to those Indians.

"To Colonel Chivington I know I stated that Major Wynkoop
had pledged his word as an officer and man to those Indians, and
that all officers under him were indirectly pledged in the same
manner that he was, and that I felt that it was placing us in
very embarrassing circumstances to fight the same Indians that
had saved our lives, as we all felt that they had.

" Colonel Chivington 's reply was that he believed it to be right
and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians
that would kill women and children ; and, * damn any one that
was in sympathy with Indians;' and, 'such men as Major Wyn-
koop and myself had better get out of the United States service.' "

This conversation was testified to by other witnesses. Major
Wynkoop, it will be remembered, was the officer in command at
Fort Lyon when this band of Cheyenues and Arapahoes came in
there to claim protection, in consequence of the governor's proc-
lamation, saying that,

" All friendly Arapahoes and Cheyennes, belonging on the Ar-
kansas River, will go to Major Colby, United States Indian Agent
at Fort Lyon, who will give them provisions and show them a
place of safety."

Major Wynkoop was succeeded in the command of Fort Lyon
by Major Anthony, who continued for a time to issue rations to
these Indians, as Major Wynkoop had done; but after a time he
called them together and told them he could not feed them any
longer; they would better go where they could hunt. He selected
the place to which they were to move on Sandy Creek. They obeyed,
and he gave back to them some of the arms which had been taken
away. They were moved to Sandy Creek, about forty miles from
Fort Lyon, partly "for fear of some conflict between them and
the soldiers or emigrants," Fort Lyon being on a thoroughfare of
travel. One of the chiefs — One Eye— was hired by Major An-
thony at $125 a month " to obtain information for the use of the
military authorities. Several times he brought news to the fort
of proposed movements of hostile Indians." This chief was
killed in the massacre.

352 APPENDIX.

This is the testimony of Captain Soule, First Colorado Cavalry:

" Did you protest against attacking those Indians? "

" I did."

«' Who was your commanding officer? "

"Major Anthony."

" Did you inform Major Anthony of the relations existing with
Black Kettle?"

"I did. He knew the relations. I frequently talked to him
about it."

" What answer did Major Anthony make to your protests ? "

«* He said that we were going to fight the hostile Indians at
Smoky Hill. He also said that he was in for killing all Indians,
and that he had only been acting friendly with them until he
could get a force large enough to go out and kill all of them."

This is the testimony of S. E. Brown:

" Colonel Chivington in a public speech said his policy was to
kill and scalp all, little and big: nits made lice."

Governor Hunt testified as follows: [Governor Hunt was one
of the earliest settlers in Colorado. He was United States Mar-
shal, Delegate to Congress, and afterward Governor of the Terri-
tory.]

" We have always regarded Black Kettle and White Antelope
as the special friends of the white man ever since I have been in
this country."

" Do you know of any acts of hostility committed by them or
with their consent? "

"No, sir, I do not."

" Did you ever hear any acts of hostility attributed to them by
any one?"

"No, sir."***

The following extract is:

" The regiment, when they marched into Denver, exhibited
Indian scalps."

This is from the official report of Major Wynkoop, major com-
manding Fort Lyon.

" In conclusion, allow me to say that, from the time I held the
consultation with the Indian chiefs on the head-waters of Smoky
Hill up to the date of this massacre by Colonel Chivington, not
one single depredation had been committed by the Cheyenne and
Arapahoe Indians. The settlers of the Arkansas Valley had re-
turned to their ranches, from which they had fled, had taken in
their crops, and had been resting in perfect security under assur-

APPENDIX. 353

ances from myself that they would be in no danger for the pres-
ent. Since this last horrible murder by Colonel Chivington the
country presents a scene of desolation. All communication is
cut ofE with the States, except by sending large bodies of troops,
and already over a hundred whites have fallen victims to the
fearful vengeance of these betrayed Indians."
January 15th, 1865.

The writer of this letter says, in regard to the investigation of
the Sand Creek massacre by the Congressional committee, that
" evidence was taken upon one side only," and "there was no
answer for the defence."

A large part of the testimony is sworn evidence, given by the
Governor of Colorado, by Colonel J. M. Chivington himself, who
planned and executed the massacre, and by Major Anthony, who
accompanied him with troops from Fort Lyon. The writer of
this article says that " the investigation was made for a certain
selfish purpose, * * * to break down -and ruin certain men."

The names of Senator Foster, Senator Doolittle, and "honest
Ben Wade " are the best refutation of this statement. It will be
hard to impeach the trustworthiness of reports signed by these
names, and one of these reports says:

" It is difficult to believe that beings in the form of men, and
disgracing the uniform of United States soldiers and officers,
could commit or countenance the commission of such acts of
cruelty and barbarity."

Of Colonel Chivington, it says:

"He deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly
massacre, which would have disgraced the veriest savage among
those .who were the victims of his cruelty."

And of Major Anthony:

" The testimony of Major Anthony, who succeeded an officer
disposed to treat these Indians with justice and humanity, is suffi-
cient of itself to show how unprovoked and unwarranted was this
massacre. He testifies that he found these Indians camped near
Fort Lyon when he assumed command of that fort; that they pro-
fessed their friendliness to the whites, and their willingness to do
whatever he demanded of them ; that they delivered their arms
up to him ; that they went to and encamped on the place desig-
nated by him; that they gave him information from time to time
of acts of hostility which were meditated by other hostile bands,
and in every way conducted themselves properly and peaceably;

15*

354 APPENDIX.

and yet he says it was fear and not principle which prevented his
killing them while they were completely in his power; and, when
Colonel Chivington appeared at Fort Lyon on his mission of
murder and barbarity, Major Anthony made haste to accompany
him with men and artillery."

The writer of this letter says that the evidence given in this
" so-called investigation " was " largely false and infamously par-
tial." If this were the case, why did not all persons so " infa-
mously " slandered see to it that before the year ended their own
version of the affair should reach, if not the general public, at
least the Department of the Interior? Why did they leave it
possible for the Secretary of the Interior to incorporate in his
Annual Report for 1865 — to be read by all the American people—
these paragraphs'?

" No official account has ever reached this office from its own
proper sources of the most disastrous and shameful occurrence,
the massacre of a large number of men, women, and children of
the Indians of this agency (the Upper Arkansas) by the troops
under the command of Colonel Chivington of the United States
Volunteer Cavalry of Colorado. * * *

u When several hundred of them had come into a place desig-
nated by Governor Evans as a rendezvous for those who would
separate themselves from the hostile parties, these Indians were
set upon and butchered in cold blood by troops in the service of
the United States. The few who escaped to the northward told
a story which effectually prevented any more advances toward
peace by such of the bands as were well disposed."

And why did the Government of the United States empower
General Sanborn, in the Council held October 12th, 1865, with the
Arapahoes and Cheyennes, including the remnants of bands that
had escaped from the Sand Creek massacre, to formally and offi-
cially repudiate the action of the United States soldiers in that
massacre? General Sanborn said, in this council:

" We all feel disgraced and ashamed when we see our officers
or soldiers oppressing the weak, or making war on those who are
at peace with us. * * * We are willing, as representatives of the
President, to restore all the property lost at Sand Creek, or its
value. * * * He has sent out his commissioners to make reparation,
as far as we can. * * * So heartily do we repudiate the actions of
our soldiers that we are willing to give to the chiefs in their own
right 320 acres of land each, to hold as his own forever, and to
each of the children and squaws who lost Lusbands or parent*,-

APPENDIX. 355

we are also willing to give 160 acres of land as their own, to keep
as long as they live."

The writer of this letter, quoting the statement from a previous
article in The Tribune, that the White River Utes, in their attack
on Major Thornburgh's command, fought "to defend their own
lands — lands bought, owned, and paid for," asks:

" Bought of whom, pray ? Paid for by whom ? To whom was
payment made?"

"Bought" of the United States Government, thereby recog-
nizing the United States Government's right to " the sovereignty
of the soil" as superior to the Indians' "right of occupancy."

" Paid for " by the Ute Indians, by repeated « relinquishments "
of said 4 'right of occupancy" in large tracts of valuable lands;
notably by the " relinquishment," according to the B/unot Treaty
of 1873, of 4,000,000 acres of valuable lands, " unquestionably
rich in mineral deposits."— Annual Report of the Secretary of the
Interior for 1873, p. 464.

" To whom was payment made ? "

To the United States Government, which has accepted and
ratified such exchanges of "right of occupancy" for "right of
sovereignty," and such sales of "right of occupancy" for large
sums of money by repeated and reiterated treaties.

The Secretary of the Interior has incorporated in his Annual
Report for 1879 (in the report on Indian Affairs, p. 36) the
following paragraphs:

" Let it be fully understood that the Ute Indians have a good
and sufficient title to 12,000,000 acres of land in Colorado, and
that these Indians did not thrust themselves in the way of the
white people, but that they were originally and rightfully pos-
sessors of the soil, and that the land they occupy has been
acknowledged to be theirs by solemn treaties made with them by
the United States.

"It will not do to say that a treaty with an Indian means
nothing. It means even more than the pledge of the Govern-
ment to pay a bond. It is the most solemn declaration that
any government of any people ever enters into. Neither will
it do to say that treaties never ought to have been made with
Indians. That question is now not in order, as the treaties
have been made, and must be lived up to whether convenient or
otherwise.

" By beginning at the outset with the full acknowledgment of
the absolute and indefeasible right of these Indians to 12,000,000

356 APPENDIX.

acres in Colorado, we can properly consider what is the best
method of extinguishing the Indian title thereto without injus^
tice to the Indians, and without violating the plighted faith oi
the Government of the United States."

The writer of this letter says:

"In withholding supplies from the White River Utes, the
Secretary of the Interior is simply obeying the law. He cannot,
except upon his own personal responsibility, issue supplies to a
hostile Indian tribe."

Secretary Schurz has published, in the Annual Eeport of the
Department of the Interior for 1879, the following paragraph in
regard to this case of the White River Utes:

" The atrocity of the crimes committed should not prevent
those individuals who are innocent from being treated as such,
according to Article 17 of the treaty, viz. : Provided, that if auy
chief of either of the confederated bands make war against the
United States, or in any manner violate this treaty in any essen-
tial part, said chief shall forf eit his position as chief, and all rights
to any of the benefits of this treaty ; but, provided further, any
Indian of either of these confederated bands who shall remain at
peace, and abide by the terms of this treaty in all its essentials,
shall be entitled to its benefits and provisions, notwithstanding
his particular chief and band have forfeited their rights thereto."

The writer of this letter says, in allusion to the murders and
outrages committed by some of the White River Utes, that " H. H.
is the champion of the fiends who wrought the ruin." Have the
readers of The Tribune so understood my protests against the
injustice of punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty ?

H. H.

New York, Peb. 22d, 1880.

This letter was followed by a card from Mr. Byers, reiterating
some of his assertions ; and by a second short letter, which closed
the discussion*

To the Editor of the Tribune:

SIE, — I ask only a little space for reference to the communica-
tion of " H. H." in to-day's Tribune. It isasked,. " If the investi-
gation of the Sand Creek affair was so unfair, why did not the
people of Colorado correct the false impression by presenting
their own version of the case?" The answer is that the case
was prejudged, and we were denied a hearing in our defence.

APPENDIX. ™

The inference is conveyed in to-day's article that Indian hostil-
ities on the plains were provoked by and followed after the Sand
Creek massacre. We, who were so unfortunate as to be citizens
of Colorado at the time, know that a very great majority of the
savage atrocities of that period occurred before the battle of Sand
Creek. We know that the Sand Creek Indian camp was the
common rendezvous of the hostile bands who were committing
those atrocities. We know that comparatively few occurred after-
ward. No amount of special pleading, no reiteration of partial
statements, and withholding of more important truths, will change
the facts so well known to the earlier settlers of Colorado.

I deny that the Utes have either bought or paid for any land.
They have relinquished for a consideration a certain portion of
the land they formerly claimed, and still retain the other portion.
I deny, also, that only twelve of the White Kiver Utes are guilty
and the great mass of them innocent. The contrary is the fact

WM. N. BYEBS.

New York, Feb. 24th, 1880.

To the Editor of the Tribune:

SIR, — In reply to the assertion that the perpetrators of the Sand
Creek massacre were " denied a hearing in their defence," I wish
to state to the readers of The Tribune that, in addition to the Con-
gressional committees from whose reports I have already quoted,
there was appointed a Military Commission to investigate that
massacre. This commission sat seventy-three days, in Denver
and at Fort Lyon. Colonel J. M. Chivington called before it, in
his " defence," all the witnesses he chose, and gave notice on
the seventy-third day of the commission's sitting that he did not
"wish to introduce any more witnesses for the defence." He
also had (and used) the privilege of cross-examining every wit-
ness called by the commission. The evidence given before this
commission occupies over two hundred pages of Volume II. , Sen-
ate Documents for 1866-'67.

In reply to the assertion that " a great majority of the savage
atrocities of that period occurred before " the massacre at Sand
Creek, and that " comparatively few occurred after," I will give
to the readers of The Tribune one extract from the report of the
Indian Peace Commission of 1868. Alluding to the Sand Creek
massacre, the report says:

" It scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity.
Fleeing women, holding up their hands and praying for mercy,

358 APPENDIX.

were shot down ; infants were killed and scalped in derision ;
men were tortured and mutilated in a manner that would put to
shame the savages of interior Africa. No one will be astonished
that a war ensued which cost the Government $30,000,000, and
carried conflagration and death into the border settlements.
During the spring and summer of 1865 no less than 8000 troops
were withdrawn from the effective forces engaged in the Kebellion
to meet this Indian war."

The Commissioners who made this report were N. J. Taylor,
President; J. B. Henderson, John B. Sanborn, William T. Sher-
man, Lieutenant-general ; William S. Harvey, Brevet Major-gen-
eral; Alfred H. Terry, Brevet Major-general; C. C. Augur, Brevet
Major-general; S- F. Tappan.

In reply to the assertion that the Utes have not " either bought
or paid for any land," I will ask such of The Tribune readers as
are interested in the subject to read the "Brunot Treaty," made
September 13th, 1873, "between Felix R. Brunot, Commissioner
for the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and men" of the
seven confederated bands of Utes. Tt is to be found in the report
of the Department of the Interior for 1873, p. 454.

In conclusion of the discussion as to the Sand Creek massacre,
I will relate one more incident of that terrible day. It has not
been recorded in any of the reports. It was told in Colorado, to
one of the members of the Senate Committee at the time of their
investigation : One of the squaws had escaped from the village,
and was crouching behind some low sage brush. A frightened
horse came running toward her hiding-place, its owner in hot
pursuit. Seeing that the horse was making directly for her shel-
ter, and that she would inevitably be seen, and thinking that pos-
sibly if she caught the horse, and gave him back to the owner,
she might thus save her life, she ran after the horse, caught it,
and stood holding it till the soldier came up. Remembering that
with her blanket rolled tight around her she might possibly be
taken for a man, as she put into the soldier's hand the horse's bri-
dle, with the other hand she threw open her blanket enough to
show her bosom, that he might see that she was a woman. He
put the muzzle of his pistol between her breasts and shot her
dead; and afterward was " not ashamed " to boast of the act. It
was by such deeds as this that "the Colorado soldiers acquitted
themselves well, and covered themselves with glory." H. H.

"New York, Feb. 28th, 1880.

APPENDIX. 359

II.

THE PONCA CASE.
Extract from Treaty with the Poncas, giving them Dakota Lands.

"ART. II. — In consideration of the cession or release of that
portion of the reservation above described by the Ponca tribe of
Indians to the Government of the United States, the Government
of the United States, by way of rewarding them for their constant
fidelity to the Government thereof, and with a view of returning
to the said tribe of Ponca Indians their old burying-grounds and
cornfields, hereby cede and relinquish to the tribe of Ponca In-
dians the following described fractional townships, to wit, town-
ship thirty-one (31), north range, seven (7) west; also fractional
township thirty-two (32), north ranges, six (6), seven (7), eight (8),
nine (9), and ten (10) west; also fractional township thirty-three
(33), north ranges, seven (7) and eight (8) west; and also all that
portion of township thirty-three (33), north ranges, nine (9) and
ten (10) west, lying south of Ponca Creek ; and also all the islands
in the Niobrara or Kunning Water River lying in front of lands
or townships above ceded by the United States to the Ponca tribe
of Indians."

A correspondence which was held with the Secretary of the
Interior in the winter of 1879, in regard to the Poncas, is so ex-
cellent an illustration of the methods and policy of the Interior
Department that it is worth while to give it at length here.

FIRST LETTER.
MRS. JACKSON TO SECRETARY SCHTJRZ.

New York, Friday, Jan, 9th, 1880.
To the Secretary of the Interior :

DEAR SIR, — I have received from a Boston lady a letter which
has so important a bearing on the interests of the Poncas that I
take the liberty of asking you to read and reply to the following
extracts. I send them to you with the writer's permission:

" In Boston most of those who are likely to give most largely
and feel most strongly for the Indians have confidence in Secre-
tary Schurz. They think that so far he has shown himself their
friend, and they feel unprepared to help any plan with regard to
the Indians which he opposes. The greatest service which could

360 APPENDIX,

be rendered to the Indian cause at present would be given, there-
fore, by some one sufficiently interested to obtain an answer who
would write to Secretary Schurz, and request him, on the part of
the Indians, either to aid them by publicly and cordially endors-
ing this effort of the Poncas to secure their legal rights in the
courts, or else to give his reasons against this attempt, in so clear
a form that one could understand them. If there are good rea-
sons, there can be no ground for keeping them secret, and the
public has a right to know them. If not, no man can call him-
self a friend of the Indians who throws cold water on the present
interest of the public in this matter.

"Secretary Schurz has already stated that it was not worth
while to sue for the Ponca lands, as the Poncas are better off
where they now are ; but Secretary Schurz cannot deny that it is
worth ten times $10,000 to prove that if the Government seizes
land given to the Indians forever by solemn compact, the latter
can by the courts recover it. Secretary Schurz has also said that
a bill to give the Indians land in severalty is already before Con-
gress. If he wishes that bill to pass he must know that it is only
by help of the people that the ignorance, apathy, and greed which
are accountable for the shameful record of the past can be over-
come ; and that, whatever his sentiments toward these particular
Poncas, he cannot afford to throw aside the interest they have
excited.

" For a hundred years the Indians have been the victims of
fraud and oppression on the part of the Government. Will any-
thing put au end to it but to give the Indians the legal right to
protect themselves? Promises and plans will not do it, for who
can assure their performance ? Secretary Schurz's position is a
strange one, and the public are waiting and watching to see what
it means. Is it possible that he is satisfied to have 250,000 hu-
man beings, with valuable possessions (however uncivilized), held
as absolute slaves, with no rights, and at the mercy of a govern-
ment like ours, whose constant changes, to say the least, render
most improbable the wise, equitable, and humane treatment he
recommends in his report— and when the distance of the Indian
from the personal interests of all but those States which have a
personal interest in possessing his lands makes the assistance of
Congress in such treatment still more unlikely? I cannot but
believe that he has allowed himself to be driven into an oppo-
sition he does not really feel ; and that he will yet have the
magnanimity to forget any criticism on his own acts, and take

APPENDIX. 361

the lead with those who would try to give the Indians a perma-
nent defence against the vicissitudes of party and the greed of
mep,. ^

"" 1 will not forget to add that if the three thousand and odd
hundreds of dollars needed to complete the ten thousand re-
quired to pay the costs of the Ponca suits cannot be raised in the
great city of New York, I will myself guarantee to raise it in Bos-
ton in twenty-four hours if Secretary Schurz will openly endorse
the plan."

The matter stands, therefore, in this shape: If you can say that
you approve of the Poncas bringing the suits they wish to bring
for the recovery of their lands, all the money for which they ask
can be placed in their hands immediately. The writer of the
above letter assured me that she would herself give the entire
sum if there were any difficulty in raising it. If you do not ap-
prove of the Poncas bringing these suits, or making an effort to
bring them, are you willing to give the reasons of your disap-
proval? It would be a great satisfaction to those Boston friends
of yours whose action in this matter tarns solely on your decision,
if these reasons could be stated in clear and explicit form.

Yours respectfully, HELEN JACKSON.

SECRETARY SCHURZ TO MRS. JACKSON.
Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Jan. 17th, 1880.

DEAR MADAM, — I should certainly have answered your letter
of the 9th instant more promptly had I not been somewhat over-
burdened with official business during the past week. I hope
you will kindly pardon the involuntary delay.

As I understand the matter, money is being collected for the
purpose of engaging counsel to appear for the Poncas in the
courts of the United States, partly to represent them in the case of
an appeal from Judge Dundy's habeas corpus decision, and partly
to procure a decision for the recovery of their old reservation on
the Missouri Kiver. I believe that the collection of money for
these purposes is useless. An appeal from Judge Dundy's Tia-
leas corpus decision can proceed only from the Government, not
from the Poncas, for the simple reason that the decision was in
favor of the latter. An appeal was, indeed, entered by the United
States District- attorney at Omaha immediately after the decision
had been announced. Some time ago his brief was submitted to
me. On examining it, I concluded at once to advise the attorney-
general of my opinion that it should be dropped, as I could not

362 APPENDIX.

approve the principles upon which the argument was based. The
attorney-general consented to instruct the district-attorney ac-
cordingly, and thus Judge Dundy's decision stands without fur-
ther question on the part of the Government. Had an appeal
been prosecuted, and had Judge Dundy's decision been sustained
by the court above, the general principles involved in it would
simply have been affirmed without any other practical effect than
that already obtained. This matter is therefore ended.

As to the right of the Poncas to their old reservation on the
Missouri, the Supreme Court has repeatedly decided that an In-
dian tribe cannot sue the United States or a State in the federal
courts. The decisions are clear and uniform on this point.
Among lawyers with whom I discussed this matter, I have not
found a single one who entertained a different view ; but I did
find among them serious doubts as to whether a decision, even if
the Poncas could bring suits, would be in their favor, considering
the facts in the case. But, inasmuch as such a suit cannot be
brought at all, this is not the question. It is evidently idle to
collect money and to fee attorneys for the purpose of doing a
thing which cannot be done. Had the disinterested friends of
the Indians who are engaged in this work first consulted lawyers
on the question of possibility, they would no doubt have come to
the same conclusion.

The study I have given to the Indian question in its various
aspects, past and present, has produced in my mind the firm con-
viction that the only certain way to secure the Indians in their
possessions, and to prevent them from becoming forever a race of
homeless paupers and vagabonds, is to transform their tribal title
into individual title, inalienable for a certain period; in other
words, to settle them in severalty, and give them by patent an
individual fee-simple in their lands. Then they will hold their
lands by the same title by which white men hold theirs, and they
will, as a matter of course, have the same standing in the courts,
and the same legal protection of their property. As long as they
hold large tracts in the shape of reservations, only small parts of
which they can make useful to themselves and to others, the
whole being held by the tribe in common, their tenure will al-
ways be insecure. It will grow more and more so as our popula-
tion increases, and the quantity of available land diminishes. We
may call this an ugly and deplorable fact, but it is a fact for all
that. Long experience shows that the protests of good people
in the name of justice and humanity have availed but very little

APPENDIX. 363

against this tendency, and it is useless to disguise and unwise to
overlook it, if we mean to do a real service to the Titans.

For this reason I attach much more importance to the passage
of legislation providing for the settlement of the Indians in sever-
alty, and giving them individual title in fee-simple, the residue of
their lands not occupied by them to be disposed of for their ben-
efit, than to all the efforts, however well intended, to procure ju-
dicial decisions which, as I have shown, cannot be had. I am
glad to say that the conversations I have had with senators and
representatives in Congress on the policy of settling the Indians
in severalty have greatly encouraged my hope of the success of
the " severalty bill " during the present session.

I need not repeat here what I said in a letter to Mr. Edward
Atkinson, which you may possibly have seen some time ago in
the Boston papers, about the necessity of educating Indian chil-
dren. You undoubtedly understand that as well as I do, and I
hope you will concur in my recommendation that the money col-
lected for taking the Ponca case into the courts, which is impos-
sible of accomplishment, and as much more as can be added, be
devoted to the support and enlargement of our Indian schools,
such as those at Hampton and Carlisle. Thus a movement which
undoubtedly has the hearty sympathy of many good men and
women, but which at present seems in danger of being wasted on
the unattainable, may be directed into a practical channel, and
confer a real and lasting benefit on the Indian race.

Very respectfully yours,

C. SCHURZ.

Mrs. HELEN JACKSON, New York.

MRS. JACKSON'S SECOND LETTER.

Brevoort House, New York, Thursday, Jan. 22d, 1880.
Hon. Carl Schurz:

DEAR SIR,— Your letter of the 17th instant is at hand. If I
understand this letter correctly, the position which you take is
as follows : That there is in your opinion, and in the opinion of
the lawyers whom you have consulted on the subject, no way of
bringing before the courts the suits for the prosecution of which
money has been and is being contributed by the friends of the
Poncas; that the reason you do not approve of this movement
is that " it is evidently idle to collect money and to fee attorneys
for the purpose of doing a thing which cannot be done* " This is

364 APPENDIX,

the sole reason which I understand you to give for discountenanc.
ing the collection of money for these suits. Am I correct in this?
And are we to infer that it is on this ground and no other that
you oppose the collection of money for this purpose? Are we to
understand that you would be in favor of the Poncas recovering
their lands by process of law, provided it were practicable ?

You say, also, that you hope I will " concur " in your " recom-
mendation that the money collected for taking the Ponca case
into the courts shall be devoted to the support and enlargement
of our Indian schools." May I ask how it would be, in your opin-
ion, possible to take money given by thousands of people for one
specific purpose and use it for another different purpose? You
say* " Had the friends of the Indians who are engaged in this
work first consulted lawyers on the question of possibility, they
would, no doubt, have come to the same conclusion." Had the
friends of the Indians engaged iu this work, and initiated this
movement without having consulted lawyers, it would have been
indeed foolish. But this was not the case. Lawyers of skill and
standing were found ready to undertake the case ; and the mat-
ter stands therefore to-day precisely as it stood when I wrote to
you on the 17th instant. All the money which is thought to be
needed for carrying the Ponca case before the courts can be raised
in twenty-four hours in Boston, if you can say that you approve
of the suits being brought. If your only objection to the move-
ment is the one objection which you have stated, namely, that it
would be futile, can you not say that, if lawyers of standing are
ready to undertake the case, you would be glad to see the at-
tempt made in the courts, and the question settled? If it is, as
you think, a futile effort, it will be shown to be so. If it is, as the
friends and lawyers of the Poncas think, a practicable thing, a
great wrong will be righted.

You say that " to settle them (the Indians) in severalty, and
give them by patent an individual fee-simple in their lands, " will
enable them to " hold their lands by the same title by which white
men hold theirs," and that " then they will, as a matter of course,
have the same standing in the courts and the same legal protec-
tion of their property." May I ask you if any bill has been
brought before Congress which is so worded as to secure these
ends? ^ My only apology for troubling you again is my deep in-
terest in the Indians, and in the Ponca case especially.

Yours truly,

HELEN JACKSON.

APPENDIX. 365

REPLY OF SECRETARY SCHURZ TO THE SECOND LETTER.

Wasliington, D. C., Jan. 26th, 1880.

DEAR MADAM,— In reply to your letter of the 22d instant, I beg
leave to say that if an Indian tribe could maintain an action in
the courts of the United States to assert its rights, I should ob-
ject to it just as little as I would object to the exercise of the
same privilege on the part of white men. What I do object to is
the collection of money from philanthropic and public-spirited
persons, ostensibly for the benefit of the Indians, but in fact for
the benefit of attorneys and others who are to be paid for again
testing a question which has been tested more than once, and has
been decided by the Supreme Court so clearly and comprehen-
sively that further testing seems utterly futile. You say that
there are lawyers of skill and standing ready to undertake the
case. Of course there are such. You can find lawyers of skill
and standing to undertake for a good fee any case, however hope-
less : that is their business. But I am by no means of your opin-
ion that, whether it be futile or not, the experiment should be
tried once more, and for this purpose the collection of money
should be further encouraged. It cannot be said in this case that
if the attempt will not help it will not hurt. There seems to be
now a genuine and active interest in the Indian question spring-
ing up. Many sincere friends of the Indian are willing to spend
time and money for the promotion of their welfare. Such a
movement can do great good if wisely guided in the direction
of attainable objects; but if it be so conducted that it can result
only in putting money into the pockets of private individuals,
without any benefit to the Indians, the collapse will be as hurtful
as it seems to be inevitable. It will not only be apt to end a
movement which, if well directed, might have become very use-
. ful, but it will also deter the sincere friends of the Indians who
contributed their means in the hope of accomplishing something
from further efforts of that kind, so that we may find it very diffi-
cult, for a long time at least, to engage this active sympathy again.
Confidence once abused does not revive very quickly. This is my
view of the case. You ask me " how it would be possible to take
money given by thousands of people for one specific purpose, and
use it for another and different purpose," meaning the support of
Indian schools. It would, in my opinion, be far better to lay the
matter in its true aspect frankly before the contributors, and to

366 APPENDIX.

ask them for their consent to the change of purpose, than to throw
away the money for a purpose which cannot be accomplished.

In reply to your inquiry whether any bill has been brought be-
fore Congress providing for the settlement of the Indians in sev-
eralty, and for conferring upon the individual title in fee-simple
to the lands allotted to them, I am glad to say that several bills
of this kind have been introduced in both the Senate and the
House, and are now before the respective committees on Indian
affairs for consideration. If such a bill passes, of which there is
great hope, the Indian, having a fee title by patent to the piece
of land which he individually, not as a member of a tribe, holds
as his own, will stand in the eye of the law just like any other
owner of property in his individual right, and, as a matter of
course, will have the same standing in court. This will do more
in securing the Indian in the practical enjoyment of his property
than anything else I can think of, and it has long been my en-
deavor to bring about just this result. I trust we shall obtain
the desired legislation during the present session of Congress.
Very respectfully yours, C. SCHUBZ.

Mrs. HELEN JACKSON, New York.

The evasive and inconclusive character of these replies of the
Secretary provoked much comment, and gave rise to a very wide-
spread and natural impression that he was for some reason or
other averse to the restoration to the Poncas of their old homes.
The letters were reviewed by one of the editors of the New York
Times in a paper so admirable that the letters ought not to be
printed without it.

CIVIL RIGHTS IN ACRES.
(From the New York Times, February 21st, 3880.)

" As most of the readers of the Times already know, friends of
the Potica Indians are endeavoring to have the tribe restored to
their old reservation in Dakota. Or, more strictly speaking, it is
proposed that their reservation shall be restored to them. The
lands occupied by the Poncas were ceded to them by the United
States by solemn treaty. By a cruel and wicked blunder, which
no man has attempted to explain, those lands were ceded to the
Sioux. But the Sioux did not want the lands, and they have
never occupied them unto this day. To this robbery of the tribe
was added the destruction of their houses, movable property, and
farms. A citizen of the United States would have redress in the

APPENDIX. 867

courts for such an outrage as this. An Indian has no legal status.
He is merely a live and particularly troublesome animal, in the
eye of the law. But, while the Poncas were trying to get hack
on their lands, they were arrested hy order of the Secretary of
the Interior, on the charge of running away from the agency to
which they had been sent by the Govern inent when their lands
were taken from them. It is not necessary to add words to in-
tensify this accumulation of criminal folly and wrong. Certain
citizens of Nebraska, hearing of the injustice which was be-
ing perpetrated on the Poncas, raised funds, and had the chiefs
brought before United States District Judge Dundy on a writ of
habeas corpus^ to inquire why they were thus restrained of their
liberty. Judge Dundy decided that an Indian was 'a person'
within the meaning of the Habeas Corpus Act, and that these
persons were unlawfully held in duress.

"It was thought that the United States would appeal from
this dictum, but no appeal was taken, much to the disappoint-
ment of the friends of the Indians, as it was hoped that a decision
could be reached to show whether the Indian was or was not so
far clothed with the privilege of a citizen that he could have a
standing in the courts of law. Accordingly, the public-spirited
and philanthropic persons who had espoused the cause of the
Poncas resolved to make up a case, which, carried to the United
States Supreme Court, should determine once and forever this
moot point. To this end money has been raised by subscription,
by special gift, and by contributions taken at public meetings in
various parts of the country. A lady residing in Boston, moved
by the pitiful condition of the Indians, who tried to struggle to-
ward civilization, offered to supply all the money which was lack-
ing toward the expenses of the suit, provided Secretary Schurz
would give some public assurances that he favored this manner
of determining the case, or would give his reasons against this
attempt. The lady's proposition was sent to Mrs. Helen Hunt
Jackson, whose disinterested and efficient labors in behalf of the
deeply-wronged Poncas had already attracted attention. Mrs.
Jackson forwarded to Secretary Schurz the whole statement.
Thereupon an interesting correspondence ensued. This corre-
spondence has been printed in the Boston papers, presumably by
direction of Secretary Schurz.

"In reply to the request to say whether he approres of the
movement to carry the Ponca case to the Supreme Court, in order
that the tribe may recover their old reservation, the Secretary

APPENDIX.

says that this would be useless, as the courts have repeatedly de-
cided that an Indian tribe cannot sue the United States. Unfort-
unately, Mr. Schurz does not cite these cases, but we must take
it for granted that he knows what he is talking about. He adds '
that he has taken the advice of lawyers, who coincide with him
in this opinion. As a suit cannot be brought at all, according to
the Secretary and his legal advisers, it would be idle to collect
money for this purpose; and the Secretary suggests that, if the
disinterested friends of the Indians had consulted lawyers before
they began their work, they would be of his opinion as to the
futility of the attempt. This, of course, leaves the impression
that the Secretary withholds his approval of the movement to
secure legal rights for the Poncas, though he does not say so in
express terms. His reason for not approving the attempt is that
it will do no good. His solution to the Indian problem, as it is
vaguely called, is to settle the Indians in severalty, breaking up
their tribal organization, and- giving to each individual his lands
in fee-simple. This, the Secretary thinks, will enable them to
hold their lands by the same title as that by which white men
hold theirs, and, * as a matter of course, they will have the same
standing in the courts' as white men. It is to be regretted that
the Secretary did not pause here long enough to show how the
giving to an Indian of 160 acres of land can clothe him with civil
rights which he does not now possess, and which the Secretary
thinks that the courts cannot give him. For this reason, however,
Mr. Schurz is greatly in favor of legislation providing for the set-
tlement of the Indians in severalty, various bills to accomplish
which, he says, are in preparation. As for the money raised
already, the Secretary suggests that since, in his opinion, it would
be misspent in obtaining judicial decision, it might be used in the
education of Indian children.

" Replying to this, Mrs. Jackson asks if the Secretary would be
in favor of the Poncas recovering their lands by process of law,
provided that could be done. To this direct and very important
inquiry we regret to notice that the Secretary finds himself un-
able to reply, although, in a letter immediately following this, he
does say that if an Indian tribe could maintain an action at law in
the courts to assert its rights, he would no more object to it than
he would to a white man's doing the same thing. As to the sug-
gestion that the money collected for the expenses of legal proceed-
ings be used for educational purposes, Mrs. Jackson asks tlie
Secretary how it would be possible to take money given for one

APPENDIX. 369

specmc purpose and use it for another and wholly different pur-
pose. Mr. Schurz rejoins that the consent of the donors may
first be obtained; but he forgets that it would be impossible
to canvass the country to ascertain the wishes of thousands of
unknown givers to this fund. Referring to the intimatioa that
the friends of the Indians had not taken legal counsel in this
matter, and that the Secretary had, Mrs. Jackson observes that
they did take such counsel, and that an omission to do so would
have been indeed foolish.

" It will be observed that the Secretary's objection to the at-
tempt to secure civil rights is its futility; and, in answer to Mrs.
Jackson's statement that the friends of the Indians have sought
the opinions of lawyers in this case, he replies that one « can find
lawyers of skill and standing to undertake, for a good fee, any
case, however hopeless.' To those who might think that this is
unjustly severe on the legal profession, it should be said that Mr
Schurz has been by profession a lawyer, and should know what
he is talking about. And we must presume that Mr. Schurz's
profound knowledge of the law, which is fortified by the opinions
of eminent legal men, induces him to consider the whole case
closed in advance of its submission to the courts. It would be
interesting, however, to know if the Secretary's lawyers of skill
and standing are less easily influenced by the prospect of a * good
fee' than the lawyers of skill and standing consulted by the
friends of the Poncas. The exceedingly able opinion of Secre-
tary Schurz, we find, is that it is useless to give the Indian a
standing in the courts through judicial decisions, as he can
readily secure this by accepting from the Government of the
United States a deed of 160 acres of land."

CONDITION OF THE PONCAS IN THE SUMMER OF 1880.

Standing Bear and his party, after their release by the deci-
sion of Judge Dandy, settled on an island in the Niobrara River,
which was a part of their old reservation, and had fortunately
been overlooked when the United States Government took forci-
ble possession of the rest of their land and presented it to the
Sioux. Here they were joined by other fugitives of their tribe
till the number reached about one hundred and thirty. A com-
mittee which had been organized in Omaha for their relief
supplied them with fanning implements, and they went indus-
triously to work. This committee published in July, 1880, a
report containing the following paragraphs:

16

370 APPENDIX.

" We consider the treatment of the Ponca Indians as one of the
most heart-sickening chapters in our national record of Indian
\vrongs, and we are determined to spare no effort to restore to
them their stolen homes and rights, and to relieve the American
people of the stigma of this terrible -wrong.

"The Senate of the United States during the past winter
appointed a select committee ' to ascertain and report the cir-
cumstances of the removal of the Ponca Indians from their res-
ervation, and whether the said Indians are not entitled to be
restored thereto.' This Senate Committee devoted a long time to
a thorough and patient investigation of this whole Ponca case,
and reported that the Poncas had been * forced, without authority
of law, from their homes to the Indian Territory,' and reported also
a bill for their restoration to their former reservation, and recom-
mending 'that 150,000 be appropriated for the purpose of taking
the Poncas back, and restoring their now dilapidated homes.'

"This able report of the United States Senate says that 'in
dealing with one of the most peaceable and orderly and well-
disposed of all the tribes of Indians, the Government has violated
in the most flagrant manner their rights of property, and disre*
garded their appeals to the honor and justice of the United States,,
and the dictates of humanity.' "

The report also says that " the committee can find no language
sufficiently strong to condemn the whole proceeding, and trace
to it all the troubles which have come upon the Poncas, and the
hardships and sufferings which have followed them since they
were taken from their old reservation and placed in their present
position in the Indian Territory."

The Omaha Ponca Relief Committee need no better vindica-
tion of their action in behalf of this distressed and outraged
people than these strong and weighty words of a committee of
United States Senators, composed of representative men of both
political parties.

The Omaha Committee consisted of Bishop Clarkson, of Ne-
braska, chairman; Rev. A. F. Sherrill, Rev. W. I. Harsha, Leavitt
Burnham, W. M. Yates, and P. L. Perine.

At the request of this committee, Mr. T. H. Tibbies in June
went to the Indian Territory to visit the Poncas (of whom only
about 400 were left alive). He was authorized " to assure them
of the interest and efforts of humane people all over the country
in their behalf, and to notify them that the Omaha Committee
were ready to assist them in any practical way to return to theii

APPENDIX. 871

old homes, from which they had been unjustly and inhumanly
ejected."

Mr. Tibbies succeeded in visiting the Poncas, although the
Government agent interfered with him in many ways, and finally
arrested him by authority of an order from Washington to arrest
any member of the Omaha Committee who came upon the reser-
vation. He was insulted by the agent, taken by force out of the
reservation, and threatened with much more severe treatment if
he ever returned.

This high-handed outrage on a free citizen of the United States
aroused indignation throughout the country. The comments of
the Press on the occurrence showed that people were at last
waking up to a sense of the tyrannical injustice of the Indian
Department. The New York Tribune said, editorially:

«* The Indian Department may as well understand at once that
the Ponca case has passed out of their control. It is a matter of
simple justice which the people are determined to see righted.
* * * No petty Indian agent has the legal right to imprison, mal-
treat, and threaten the life of any citizen totally guiltless of
offence beyond that of working to give these serfs of the Gov-
ernment the standing of human beings. * * * It is the Govern-
ment of this great Republic, where all men are free and equal,
that holds these Poncas prisoners on a tract where to remain is
death. They are innocent of any crime except that they have
been robbed of their land, and that they ask to bring suit, as a
black man or convict could do, in the courts for its recovery."

Mr. Tibbies reported the condition of the Poncas in Indian
Territory as " deplorable in the extreme. They live in constant
dread and fear, and are as much imprisoned as if they were in a
penitentiary." They seem "to have lost all hope, are broken-
hearted and disconsolate. With one or two exceptions, they are
making no effort to help themselves. Their so-called farms are
miserable little patches, to which they pay very little attention.
One of them said to me, * If the Government forces me to stay
here, it can feed me. I had a good farm back at our old home,
and if I was back there I would farm again ; I have no heart to
work here.' The one hundred and fifteen who are back on the
old reservation have a much larger amount of land under culti-
vation than the whole four hundred who are in Indian Territory.
They have kept their crops in good condition, and are full of
energy and hope."

The Government Agency for the Poncas having been trans*

372 APPENDIX.

ferred to the Indian Territory, the annuities due the tribe were
of course paid there, and that portion of the tribe -which had fled
back to Dakota received nothing. Moreover, the Indian Bureau
issued an order forbidding any Ponca who should leave the In-
dian Territory to take with him any kind of property whatsoever,
under penalty of being arrested for stealing. As they could
not take their families on the long, hard journey to Dakota
without food or means of transportation, this order kept them
imprisoned in Indian Territory as effectually as a military guard
could have done.

The Government employe's in charge of them reported, mean-
while, that they had «• made up their minds to live and die where
they are. * * * There exists a feeling of contentment in the tribe
that will make it very difficult for any one to induce them to leave
their present home," says a general press despatch, presumably
dictated by the Indian Bureau, and sent throughout the country
on July loth.

It seems an insult to people's common-sense to suppose that
this statement would be believed, close on the heels of the general
order for the arrest of all fleeing Poncas who should dare to take
with them out of the Indian Territory one dollar's worth of prop-
erty. A very superfluous piece of legislation, surely, for a com-
munity so " contented " that it would be " difficult for any one to
induce them to leave their homes."

THE LEGAL ASPECT OF THE CASE.

The chivalric and disinterested attorneys who had had the
charge of the Ponca case from the outset, were not to be intimi-
dated by the threats nor outwitted by the expedients of the In-
dian Bureau. The ingenious devices practised by the Depart-
ment of the Interior to hinder the getting service of summons
upon the defendants in the suits necessary to recover the Poncas*
lands, make by themselves a shameful chapter, which will some
day be written out. But on the 13th of July the attorneys were
able to report to the Omaha Committee as follows :

REPORT OP THE ATTORNEYS.

Omaba, July 13th, 1880.
To Omaha Ponca Indian Committee :

In response to the inquiry of one of your members as to the
condition of the suits instituted by us to liberate Standing Bear
and his associate from the custody of the military, and to re-

APPENDIX. 373

cover possession of the Ponca reservation, we make the following
statement:

On April 8th, 1879, was filed by us the petition in the case of
United States ex reL Ma-chu-nah-zha (Standing Bear) et al. vs.
George Crook, a Brigadier-general of the Army of the United
States and Commander of the Department of the Platte, in the
U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, for a writ of
habeas corpus for the release of Standing Bear and his companions.
This cause was tried about the first of May, 1879, and Standing
Bear and his companions were restored to their liberty. There-
upon the U. S. District-attorney took the case to the United
States Circuit Court for this District by appeal, and about May
19th, upon hearing before Mr. Justice Miller, Associate Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States, was there continued, and
on January 5th, 1880, the appeal was dismissed on the motion of
the U. S. IMstrict-attorney.

On April 3d, 1880, was commenced by us the case of Ponca
tribe of Indians vs. Makh-pi-ah-lu-ta, or Red Cloud, in his own
behalf, and in behalf of the Sioux nation of Indians, in the U. S.
Circuit Court for the District of Nebraska, and on May 18th,
1880, we commenced in the same court the case of Ponca tribe
of Indians vs. Sioux nation of Indians. These cases were^ com-
menced, and are being prosecuted by us, to recover possession of
and establish the title of the Ponca tribe of Indians to so much
of their old reservation as lies within the limits of Nebraska.
Great delay was made necessary in the commencement of these
cases, and the ones subsequently commenced in Dakota, of which
we below make mention, owing to difficulties in getting service
of summons upon the defendants. On May 22d, 1880, service of
summons was had on the defendants in both cases, and some
action will be taken therein at the next term of the court.

About the 20th of May, 1880, there were commenced in Da-
kota other suits in the name of the Ponca tribe of Indians, and
against the Sioux nation of Indians, and against certain of their
chiefs, to settle and establish the title of the Ponca tribe of In-
dians to so much of their old reservation as lies within the limits
of Dakota. Service has been had in these cases, and the several
suits mentioned will be prosecuted by us with all convenient
speed.

We might add that we also have in charge the case of John
Elk vs. Charles Wilkins, in the U. S. Circuit Court for this Dis-
trict, which is being prosecuted by us to determine the rights of

374 APPENDIX.

Indians under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of
the United States. Kespectfully submitted,

A. J. POPPLETON,

JNO. L. WEBSTER.

III.

TESTIMONIES TO INDIAN CHARACTER.

" EARLY in 1800 the Governor of the North-west Territory, in his
message to the assembly, invited their attention to the condition
of the Indians. lie observed that, irrespective of the principles
of religion and justice, it was the interest and should be the pol-
icy of the United States to be at peace with them ; but that could
not continue to be the case if the treaties existing between them
and the Government were broken with impunity by the inhabi-
tants of the Territory. He referred to the well-known fact that
while the white men loudly complained of every injury commit-
ted by the Indians, however trifling, and demanded immediate
reparation, they were daily perpetrating against them injuries
and wrongs of the most provoking and atrocious nature, for
which the perpetrators had not been brought to justice.* * * He
stated that the number of those unfortunate people who had been
murdered since the peace of Greenville was sufficient to produce
serious alarm for the consequences. He added, further, that a
late attempt to bring to punishment a white man, who was clearly
proved to have killed two adult Indians and wounded two of
their children, had proved abortive."— BURNET'S Notes on North-
west Territory.

CHARACTER OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIANS.

" Among other falsehoods it has been asserted confidently, but
without a shadow of argument or fact to sustain the assertion,
that they cannot be brought to a state of civilization, or be in-
duced to form communities and engage in the pursuits of agri-
culture and the arts, in consequence of some physical difference
between them and the Anglo-Saxon race. This hypothesis is
contradicted by experience, which has abundantly shown that the
two races, when placed in the same situation, and acted upon by
the same causes, have invariably resorted to the same expedients
and pursued the same policy.

APPENDIX. 375

" This ayerment is sustained by a reference to the white people
who have been taken prisoners in childhood and brought up
among the Indians. In every such case the child of civilization
has become the ferocious adult of the forest, manifesting all the
peculiarities, tastes, and preferences of the native Indian. His
manners, habits, propensities, and pursuits have been the same,
so that the most astute philosophical observer has not been able
to discover any difference between them, except in the color of
the skin, and in some instances even this has been removed by
long exposure to the-elements, and the free use of oils and paints."

The many instances which there are on record of cases in
which persons taken captive by the Indians, while young, have
utterly refused in later life to return to their relatives and homes,
go to confirm this statement of Judge Bui-net's.

On the other hand, he says: " The attempts that have been
made at different times to improve the minds and cultivate the
morals of these people have always been attended by success.

" On an unprejudiced comparison between the civilized edu-
cated white man and the civilized educated Indian, all this the-
ory of an organic constitutional difference between the European
and the native Indian vanishes.

«' In what respect have Ross, Boudinot, Hicks, Ridge, and oth-
ers differed from the educated men of our own race? Inasmuch
then as the reclaimed educated Indian becomes assimilated to the
white man, and the European brought up from infancy among
the Indians becomes identified with them, this alleged difference
cannot be real, it must be imaginary.

" The fact is, the difiiculty of civilizing the natives of this con-
tinent is neither greater nor less than that which retarded the
improvement of the barbarous nations of Europe two thousand
years ago. * * * Men uncivilized have always delighted in the
chase, and had a propensity to roam; both history and expe-
rience prove that nothing but necessity, arising from such an in-
crease of population as destroys the game, has ever induced men
to settle in communities, and rely on the cultivation of the earth
for subsistence. In the progress of civilization the chase has
given way to the pastoral state, and that has yielded to agricult-
ure as the increase of numbers has rendered it necessary.

" As soon as the Cherokees and the "Wyandots were surrounded
by a white population, and their territory was so contracted as
to cut off their dependence on hunting and fishing, they became
farmers, and manifested a strong desire to cultivate the arts; and

376 APPENDIX.

this would have been the choice of the whole Indian race if the
policy of the Government had permitted it!

" It is not just to consider the natives of this country as a dis-
tinct and inferior race because they do not generally imitate us,
when we not only remove every consideration that could induce
them to do so, but in fact render it impossible. What motive
of ambition was there to stimulate them to effort, when they were
made to feel that they held their country as tenants at will, liable
to be driven of: at the pleasure of their oppressors?

" As soon as they were brought to a situation in which neces-
sity prompted them to industry, and induced them to begin to
adopt our manners and habits of life, the covetous eye of the
white man was fixed on their incipient improvements, and they
received the chilling notice that they must look elsewhere for
permanent homes.

" At the time our settlements were commencing north-west of
the Ohio, the Indians were its acknowledged owners and sover-
eigns ; the Government claimed no right either of occupancy or
soil, except as they obtained it by purchase."

(On the 31st of July, 1793, the United States Commissioners said
to the assembled chiefs of the North-western tribes, in a council
held at the home of one Captain Elliott, on the Detroit River :
" By the express authority of the President of the United States,
we acknowledge the property, or right of soil to the great coun-
try above described, to be in the Indian nations as long as they
desire to occupy it; we claim only the tracts before particularly
mentioned, and the right of pre-emption granted by the King, as
before explained.")

" The entire country from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi was
admitted to be theirs, and a more delightful, fertile valley cannot
be found on the earth. * * *

" Unconscious of the ruinous consequences that were to follow
their intimacy with white men, they ceded to the American Gov-
ernment large and valuable portions of the country at nominal
prices. Those lands were rapidly settled by Americans, in whose
purity and friendship the unsuspecting natives had great confi-
dence; nor did they awake from that delusion tiU their habits of
sobriety and morality had been undermined, and the vices en-
gendered by intemperance and idleness had contaminated every
tribe. * * *

" Their subsistence became precarious; their health declined;
their self-respect, their dignity of character, and the heroism in-

APPENDIX. S7T

herited from their ancestors were lost. They became In their own
estimation a degraded, dependent race. The Government, avail-
ing itself of their weakness and want of energy, succeeded by
bribes and menaces in. obtaining the best portions of their coun-
try, and eventually in driving them from the land of their birth
to a distant home in an unknown region.

" This distressing chapter of aboriginal history began at the
treaty of Greenville, in 1795, and terminated in less than fifty
years. The writer of these notes witnessed its commencement,
progress, and close." — BURNET'S Notes on North-west Territory.

NES PERCYS AND PLAT-HEADS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.

" They were friendly in their dispositions, and honest to the
most scrupulous degree in their intercourse with the white men.
* # * Simply to call these people religious would convey but a faint
idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which pervades the
whole of their conduct. Their honesty is immaculate; and their
purity of purpose and their observance of the rites of their relig-
ion are most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more
like a nation of saints than a horde of savages." — CAPTAIN BONNE-
VILLE'S Narrative, revised by W. IRVING.

" I fearlessly assert to the world, and I defy contradiction, that
the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a
highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an
intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being and the
universe— in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives with
the apprehension before him of a future state, when he expects
to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained
or forfeited in this world.

"I never saw any other people who spend so much of their
lives in humbling themselves before and worshipping the Great
Spirit as these tribes do, nor any whom I would not as soon sus-
pect of insincerity and hypocrisy.

" Self-denial and self-torture, and almost self-immolation, are
continual modes of appealing to the Great Spirit for his counte-
nance and forgiveness.

" To each other I have found these people kind and honorable,
and endowed with eveiy feeling of parental, filial, and conjugal
affection that is met with in more enlightened communities." —
CATLIN'S North American Indians.

Mr. Catlin spent eight years among the Indians more than
forty years ago. He travelled among the wildest of them, lived

16*

378 APPENDIX.

with them in the freest intimacy, and this is his verdict as to their
native traits, when uncontaminated by white men and whiskey.

* As long ago as 1724, the Jesuit Father Lafitau wrote of the
Indians, and stated that to his own experience he added that of
Father Gamier, who had lived sixty years among them: "They
are possessed, ".says he, " of sound judgment, lively imagination,
ready conception, and wonderful memory. All the tribes retain
at least some trace of an ancient religion, handed down to them
from their ancestors, and a form of government. They reflect
justly upon their affairs, and better than the mass of the people
among ourselves. They prosecute their ends by sure means;
they evince a degree of coolness and composure which would
exceed our patience; they never permit themselves to indulge
in passion, but always, from a sense of honor and greatness of
soul, appear masters of themselves. They are high-minded and
proud; possess a courage equal to every trial, an intrepid valor,
the most heroic constancy under torments, and an equanimity
which neither misfortunes nor reverses can shake. Toward each
other they behave with a natural politeness and attention, enter-
taining a high respect for the aged, and a consideration for their
equals which appears scarcely reconcilable with that freedom and
independence of which they are so jealous. They make few pro;
fessions of kindness, but yet are affable and generous. Toward
strangers and the unfortunate they exercise a degree of hospi-
tality and charity which might put the inhabitants of Europe to
the blush."

Father Lafitau does not disguise the fact that the Indians have
great faults. He says they are " suspicious and vindictive, cruel
to their enemies."

Pere Lallemant, a missionary among the Hurons, says: "In
point of intellect they are not at all inferior to the natives of
Europe ; I could not have believed that, without instruction, na-
ture could have produced such ready and vigorous eloquence, or
such a sound judgment in their affairs as that which I have so
much admired among the Hurons. I admit that their habits and
customs are barbarous in a thousand ways; but, after all, in mat-
ters which they consider as wrong, and which their public con-
demns, we observe among them less criminality than in France,
although here the only punishment of a crime is the shame of
having committed it."

In a history of New France, published in 1618, it is stated of
the Indians that " they are valorous, faithful, generous, and hu-

APPENDIX. 379

mane; their hospitality is so great that they extend it to every
one who is not their enemy. They speak with much judgment
and reason, and, when they have any important enterprise to un-
dertake, the chief is attentively listened to for two or three hours
together, and he is answered point to point, as the subject may
require."

In 1656 the Jesuit missionaries among the Iroquois reported:
" Among many faults caused by their blindness and barbarous
education, we meet with virtues enough to cause shame among
the most of Christians. Hospitals for the poor would be useless
among them, because there are no beggars ; those who have are
so liberal to those who are in want, that everything is enjoyed
in common. The whole village must be in distress before any
individual is left in necessity."

Captain Carver, who travelled in 1766 among the wildest tribes,
describes them as " cruel, barbarous, and revengeful in war, per-
severing and inflexible in pursuit of an enemy, sanguinary in their
treatment of prisoners, and sparing neither age nor sex." On the
other hand, he found them temperate in their mode of living, pa-
tient of hunger and fatigue, sociable and humane to all whom
they looked on as friends, and ready to share with them the last
morsel of food they possessed, or to expose their lives in their de-
fence. In their public character he describes them as " possess-
ing an attachment to their nation unknown to the inhabitants of
any other country, combining as if actuated by one soul against
a common enemy, never swayed in their councils by selfish or
party views, but sacrificing everything to the honor and advan-
tage of their tribe, in support of which they fear no danger, and
are affected by no sufferings. They are not only affectionately
attached, indeed, to their own offspring, but are extremely fond
of children in general. They instruct them carefully in their own
principles, and train them up with attention in the maxims and
habits of their nation. Their system consists chiefly in the influ-
ence of example, and impressing on them the traditionary his-
tories of their ancestors. When the children act wrong, their
parents remonstrate and reprimand but never chastise them." —
HALKETT'S Hist. Notes.

The very idea of corporal punishment of little children seems
to have been peculiarly obnoxious to the native North American.
In the " Relation de Nbuvelle France," published in 1633, there
is a curious story of an incident which took place at Quebec. A
party of Indians, watching a French drummer-boy beat his drum,

380 APPENDIX.

pressed more closely around him. than he liked, and he struck one
of the Indians in the face with his drum-stick so sharply that the
blow drew blood. The Indians, much offended, went to the in-
terpreter and demanded apologies and a present, according to
their custom. "No," said the interpreter, "our custom is to
punish the offender; we will punish the boy in your presence."
When the Indians saw the child stripped for the flogging they
began immediately to beg for his pardon ; but as the soldiers con-
tinued their preparations for whipping the lad, one of the In-
dians suddenly stripped himself and threw his robe over the boy,
crying out, " Scourge me, if you choose, but do not strike the
boy I " The good Father Le Jeune, who tells this story, adds that
this unwillingness of the Indians to see any child chastised " will
probably occasion trouble to us in the design we have to instruct
their youth."

As far back as 1587 we find evidence that the Indians were
not without religion. Thomas Hariot, an employd of Sir Walter
Raleigh's, writing from the Virginia colony, says of the Virginia
Indians: " Theye beleeve that there are many gods, which theye
call Mantaoc, but of different sorts and degrees; one onely chief
and Great God, which hath been from all eternitie; who, as theye
affirme, wben hee proposed to make the world, made first other
gods of a principall order, to bee as means and instruments to
bee used in the creation and government to folow; and after the
sunne, moone, and starres as pettie gods, and the instruments of
the other order more principall."

"In general," says Hunter, "a day seldom passes with an
elderly Indian, or others who are esteemed wise and good, in
which a blessing is not asked, or thanks returned to the Giver
of Life, sometimes audibly, but more generally in the devotional
language of the heart."

All the employe's of the North-west Fur Company bear the
same testimony to the fidelity and honesty of the Indians.

General H. Sibley once said to Bishop Whipple that for thirty
years it had been the uniform boast of the Sioux in every council
that they had never taken the life of a white man.

APPENDIX. 381

IV.

OUTKAGES COMMITTED ON INDIANS BY WHITES.

IN Captain Bonneville's narrative of five years spent in the
Rocky Mountains are many instances of cruel outrages committed
by whites upon Indians.

" One morning one of his trappers, discovering that his traps
had been carried off in the night, took a horrid oath that he
would kill the first Indian he should meet, innocent or guilty.
As he was returning with his comrades to camp, he beheld two
unfortunate Root Diggers seated on the bank, fishing; advancing
upon them, he levelled his rifle, shot one on the spot, and flung
his bleeding body into the stream.

"A short time afterward, when this party of trappers were
about to cross Ogden's River, a great number of Shoshokies, or
Root Diggers, were posted on the opposite bank, when they im-
agined they were there with hostile intent; they advanced upon
them, levelled their rifles, and killed twenty-five of them on the
spot. The rest fled to a short distance, then halted and turned
about, howling and whining like wolves, and uttering most pit-
eous wailings. The trappers chased them in every direction.
The poor wretches made no defence, but fled in terror ; nor does
it appear from the accounts of the boasted victors that a weapon
had been wielded by the Indians throughout the affair."

There seemed to be an emulation among these trappers which
could inflict the greatest outrages on the natives. They chased
them at full speed, lassoed them like cattle, and dragged them till
they were dead.

At one time, when some horses had been stolen by the .Ric«
carees, this same party of trappers took two Riccaree Indians
prisoners, and declared that, unless the tribe restored every horse
that had been stolen, these two Indians, who had strayed into the
trappers' camp without any knowledge of the offence committed,
should be burnt to death.

"To give force to their threat, a pyre of logs and fagots was
heaped up and kindled into a blaze. The Riccarees released one
horse and then another; but, finding that nothing but the relin-
quishment of all their spoils would purchase the lives of the cap-
tives, they abandoned them to their fate, moving off with many
parting words and howlings, when the prisoners were dragged to

382 APPENDIX.

the blazing pyre and burnt to death in sight of their retreating
comrades.

" Such are the acts that lead to terrible recriminations on the
part of the Indians. Individual cases of the kind dwell in the
recollections of whole tribes, and it is a point of honor and con-
science to avenge them.

" The records of the wars between the early settlers of Virginia
and New England and the natives exhibit cruelties on both sides
that make one shudder. * * * When the Indian would tear the
scalp from the crown of the scarcely yet dead victim, and muti-
late the body, could he be expected to reform those cruelties
when he saw the white man in his turn cut off the heads of his
people, and mutilate and quarter their bodies, as was done with
King Philip's, whose head, after being cut off, was sent to Plym-
outh and hung up there on a gibbet, where it remained twenty
years, while one of his hands was sent to Boston as a trophy, his
body being quartered and hung upon four trees? "— M'FORLEY'S
History and Travels.

FROM REPORT OP THE INDIAN BUREAU FOR 1854.

" Port Orford, Oregon Territory, February 5th, 1854.

"I grieve to report to you that a most horrid massacre, or
rather an out-and-out barbarous murder, was perpetrated on a
portion of the Nason tribe, residing at the mouth of the Coquille
River, on the morning of the 28th of January last, by a party of
forty miners. Before giving you the result of my examination
and my own conclusions, I will give you the reasons which that
party assign in justification of their acts.

" They avow that, for some time past, the Indians at the mouth
of the Coquille have been insolent ; that they have been in the
habit of riding the horses of white men without permission ; that
of late they have committed many thefts, such as stealing paddles
and many other articles the property of white men; that one of
their number recently discharged his gun at the ferry-house; and
that but a few days prior to the attack on the Indians, the chief,
on leaving the ferry-house, where he had just been fed, fired his
gun at a party of four white men standing near the door of the
house. They further state that, on the 27th of January, they sent
for the chief to come in for a talk ; that he not only refused to
come in, but sent back word that he would kill white men if they
came to his home; that he meant to kill all the white men he
could; that he was determined to drive the white men out of his

APPENDIX. 383

country; that he would kill the men at the ferry, and burn their
houses. Immediately after this conversation with the chief, the
white men at and near the ferry-house assembled, and deliberated
on the necessity of an immediate attack on the Indians.

" The result of their deliberation, with the full proceedings of
their meeting, is herein enclosed. At the conclusion, a courier
was despatched to the upper mines for assistance. A party of
about twenty responded to the call, and arrived at the ferry-house
on the evening preceding the morning of the massacre. On the
arrival of this re-enforcement the proceedings of the meeting first
held were reconsidered, and unanimously approved.

" At the dawn of day on the morning of the 28th of January
the party of the ferry, joined by about twenty men from the upper
mines, organized, and, in three detachments, marched upon the
Indian ranches, and consummated a most inhuman slaughter. A
full account of what they term ' a fight ' you will find in the re-
port which their captain, George H. Abbott, forwarded to me on
the day of the massacre.

" The Indians were roused from sleep to meet their death, with
but feeble show of resistance. They were shot down as they were
attempting to escape from their houses; fifteen men and one
squaw killed; two squaws badly wounded. On the part of the
white men, not even the slightest wound was received. The
houses of the Indians, with but one exception, were fired, and en-
tirely destroyed. Thus was committed a massacre too inhuman
to be readily believed. Now for my examination of this horrid
affair.

" On the morning of the 29th of January I left Port Orford for
the Coquille. We arrived at the ferry-house early in the evening
of that day. Early in the morning of the day after my arrival I
sent for the chief, who immediately came in, attended by about
thirty of his people. The chief, as well as his people, was so
greatly alarmed — apparently apprehensive that the white men
would kill them even in my presence — that it was with a good
deal of difficulty that I could induce him to express his mind
freely. He seemed only anxious to stipulate for peace and the
future safety of his people; and to procure this he was willing to
accept any terms that I might dictate. The chief was evidently
afraid to complain of or censure the slaughterers of his tribe, and
for a time replied to all the charges made against him with hesi-
tancy. After repeated assurances of protection, he finally answered
to the point every interrogatory. I asked him if he had at any

384 APPENDIX.

time fired at the man at the ferry-house. ' ]STo ! ' was his prompt
reply. At the time he was said to have fired at the white man,
he declared with great earnestness that he shot at a duck in the
river, at a distance of some two hundred yards from the ferry-
house, when on his way home, aud possibly the ball of his gun
might have bounded from the water. My subsequent observation
of the course of the river, and the point from which he was said
to have fired, convinced me that his statement was entitled to the
fullest credit. His statement is confirmed by the doubt expressed
by one of the party at whom he was said to have fired.

" The white men making the accusation only heard the whiz-
zing of a bullet. This was the only evidence adduced in proof of
the chief having fired at them. I asked the chief if he, or if to his
knowledge any of his people, had ever fired at the ferry-house. To
this he answered, ' No.' He most emphatically denied ever send-
ing threatening language to the men at the ferry, but admitted
that some of his people had. He also admitted that some of his
tribe had stolen from white men, and that they had used their
horses without permission. He did not deny that his heart had
been bad toward white men, and that he had hoped they would
leave his country. He promised to do all I required of him. If I
desired, he said he would leave the home of his fathers and take
his people to the mountains; but, with my permission and protec-
tion, he would prefer remaining in the present home of his people.

" Everything I asked or required of him he readily assented
to, promising most solemnly to maintain on his part permanent
friendly relations with white men. My interview with the tribe
occupied about two hours. During the entire council they lis-
tened with most profound attention, evidently being determined
to fasten on their minds all that fell from my lips. At the con-
clusion of the council I requested the chief to send for all the
guns and pistols in the possession of his men. You will be sur-
prised when I tell you that all the guns and pistols in the hands
of the Indians at the ranches amounted to just five pieces, two of
which were unserviceable; as to powder and ball, I do not believe
they had five rounds. Does this look like being prepared for
war ? Can any sane man believe those Indians, numbering not
over seventy-five, all told, including women and children, had con-
cocted a plan to expel from their country some three hundred
whites? Such a conclusion is too preposterous to be entertained
for a moment. There was no necessity for resorting to such ex-
treme measures. I regard the murder of those Indians as one of

APPENDIX. 385

the most barbarous acts ever perpetrated by civilized men. But
what can be done? The leaders of the party cannot be arrested,
though justice loudly demands their punishment. Here we have
not even a justice of the peace ; and as to the military force
garrisoned at Fort Orford, it consists of four men. If such mur-
derous assaults are to be continued, there will be no end of Indian
war in Oregon."— F. M. SMITH, Sub- A gent.

The Simon Kenton referred to in the following narrative was
an experienced Indian fighter, and commanded a regiment in the
war of 1812.

"In the course of the war of 1812 a plan was formed by some
of the militia stationed at Urbana, Ohio, to attack an encampment
of friendly Indians, who had been threatened by the hostile tribes,
and were invited to remove with their families within our fron-
tier settlements as a place of safety, under an assurance that they
should be protected. Kenton remonstrated against the move-
ment as being not only mutinous, but treacherous and cowardly.
He vindicated the Indian character against the false charges
which were alleged in justification of the outrage they were
about to perpetrate, and warned them against the infamy they
would incur by destroying a defenceless band of men, women,
and children, who had been induced to place themselves in their
power by a solemn promise of protection.

" He appealed to their humanity, their honor, and their duty as
soldiers. He contrasted his knowledge of the character of those
unfortunate people with their ignorance of it. He told them that
he had endured suffering and torture at their hands again and
again, but that it was in time of war, when they were defending
their wives and children, and when he was seeking to destroy
and exterminate them; and that, under those circumstances, he
had no right to complain, and never did complain. But, said he,
in time of peace they have always been kind, faithful friends, and
generous, trustworthy men.

" Having exhausted the means of persuasion without effect, and
finding them still resolved on executing their purpose, he took a
rifle and called on them to proceed at once to the execution of the
foul deed— declaring with great firmness that he would accom-
pany them to the encampment, and shoot down the first man who
attempted to molest it. ' My life, ' said he, « is drawing to a close :
what remains of it is not worth much;,' but, much or little, he was
resolved that, if they entered the Indian camp, it should be done
by passing over his corpse. Knowing that the old veteran would

886 APPENDIX.

fulfil his promise, their hearts failed them; not one ventured to
take the lead; their purpose was abandoned, and the Indians were
saved." — BURNET on the North-west Territory.

V.

EXTRACTS

FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION SENT TO TREAT WITH
THE SIOUX CHIEF, SITTING BULL, IN CANADA.

THE commission consisted of Brigadier-general Terry, Hon. A.
G. Lawrence, and Colonel Corbin, secretary. After one month's
journey, via Omaha, Nebraska, Helena, Montana, and Fort Ben-
ton, these gentlemen were met on the Canadian boundary by a
Canadian officer with a mounted escort, who conducted them to
Fort Walsh, when they were met by Sitting Bull and the other
chiefs.

General Terry recapitulated to them the advantages of being at
peace with the United States, the kindly treatment that all
surrendered prisoners had received, and said: " The President
invites you to come to the boundary of his and your country, and
there give up your arms and ammunition, and thence to go to the
agencies to which he will assign you, and there give up your
horses, excepting those which are required for peace purposes.
Your arms and horses will then be sold, and with all the money
obtained for them cows will be bought and sent to you."

It is mortifying to think that representatives of the United
States should have been compelled gravely to submit in a formal
council proposals so ludicrous as these. . The Indians must have
been totally without sense of humor if they could have listened
to them without laughter. Sitting Bull's reply is worthy of being
put on record among the notable protests of Indian chiefs against
the oppressions of their race.

He said: "For sixty-four years you have kept me and my peo-
ple, and treated us bad. What have we done that you should
want us to stop? We have done nothing. It is all the people
on your side that have started us to do all these depredations.
We could not go anywhere else, and so we took refuge in this
country. * * * I would like to know why you came here. In the
first place I did not give you the country ; but you followed me
from one place to another, so I had to leave and come over to

APPENDIX. 387

this country. * * * You have got ears, and you have got eyes to
see with them, and you see how I live with these people. You
see me. Here I am. If you think I am a fool, you are a bigger
fool than I am. This house is a medicine house. You come here
to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them. I don't wish any
such language used to me — that is, to tell me lies in my Great
Mother's house. This country is mine, and I intend to stay here
and to raise this country full of grown people. See these people
here. We were raised with them " (again shaking hands with the
British officers). " That is enough, so no more. * * * The part of
the country you gave me you ran me out of . * * * I wish you to
go back, and to take it easy going back."

The-one-that-runs-the-Ree, a Santee chief , said: "You did n't
treat us well, and I don't like you at all. * * * I will be at peace
with these people as long as I live. This country is ours. We
did not give it to you. You stole it away from us. You have
come over here to tell us lies, and I don't propose to talk much,
and that is all I have to say. I want you to take it easy going
home. Don't go in a rush."

Nine, a Yankton, said: " Sixty-four years ago you got our
country, and you promised to take good care of us and keep us.
You ran from one place to another killing us and ffghting us.* * *
You did not treat us right over there, so we came back over here.
* * * I come in to these people here, and they give me permission to
trade with the traders. That is the way I make my living. Every-
thing I get I buy from the traders. I don't steal anything.* * *
I am going to live with these people here."

So profound a contempt did the Indians feel for this commis-
sion that they allowed a squaw to address it.

A squaw, named The-one-that-speaks-once, wife of The-man-
that-scatters-the-bear, said: " I was over at your country. I
wanted to raise my children there, but you did not give me any
time. I came over to this country to raise my children, and have
a little peace " (shaking hands with the British officers) ; " that is
all I have to say to you. I want you to go back where you came
from. These are the people that I am going to stay with and
raise my children with."

The Indians having risen, being apparently about to leave the
room, the interpreter was directed to ask the following questions:
" Shall I say to the President that you refuse the offers that he
has made to you ? Are we to understand that you refuse those
offers ? " Sitting Bull answered: " I could tell you more, but that

388 APPENDIX.

is all I have to tell. If we told you more, you would not pay
any attention to it. This part of the country does not belong to
your people. You belong on the other side, this side belongs
to us."

The Crow, shaking hands, and embracing Colonel McLeod, and
shaking hands with the other British officers, said : " This is the
way I will live in this part of the country. * * * These people that
don't hide anything, they are all the people I like. * * * Sixty-four
years ago I shook hands with the soldiers, and ever since that I
have had hardships. I made peace with them; and ever since
then I have been running from one place to another to keep out
of their way. * * * Go to where you were born, and stay there. I
came over to this country, and my Great Mother knows all about
it. She knows I came over here, and she don't wish anything of
me. We think, and all the women in the camp think, we are
going to have the country full of people. * * * I have come back
in this part of the country again to have plenty more people, to
live in peace, and raise children."

The Indians then inquired whether the commission had any-
thing more to say, and the commission answered that they had
nothing more to say, and the conference closed.

The commission, with a naive lack of comprehension of the
true situation of the case, go on to say that " they are convinced
that Sitting Bull and the bands under him will not seek to re-
turn to this country at present. It is believed that they are re-
strained from returning," partly by their recollection of the severe
handling they had by the military forces of the United States in
the last winter and spring, and partly " by their belief that, for
some reason which they cannot fathom, the Government of the
United States earnestly desires that they shall return. * * * In
their intense hostility to our Government, they are determined to
contravene its wishes to the best of their ability." It would seem
so— even to the extent of foregoing all the privileges offered
them on their return — the giving up of all weapons— the exchang-
ing of their horses for cows — and the priceless privilege of being
shut up on reservations, off which they could not go without be-
ing pursued, arrested, and brought back by troops. What a depth
of malignity must be in the breasts of these Indians, that to grat-
ify it they will voluntarily relinquish all these benefits, and con-
tinue to remain in a country where they must continue to hunt,
and make their own living on the unjust plan of free trade in
open markets 1

APPENDIX. 889

VI.

ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE OLD GRIEVANCES OF
THE SIOUX.

INTERVIEW BETWEEN RED IRON, CHIEF OF THE SISSETON SIOUX,
AND GOVERNOR RAMSEY, IN DECEMBER, 1852.

CLAIMS had been set up by the Indian traders for $400,000 of
the money promised to the Sioux by the treaties of 1851 and
1852. The Indians declared that they did not owe so much.
Governor Eamsey endeavored to compel Red Iron to sign a re-
ceipt for it; he refused. He said his tribe had never had the
goods. He asked the governor to appoint arbitrators — two white
men and one Indian ; it was refused. He then said that he would
accept three white men as arbitrators, if they were honest men:
this was refused.

An eye-witness has sketched the appearance of the chief on
that occasion, and the interview between him and the governor :
The council was crowded with Indians and white men when
Red Iron was brought in, guarded by soldiers. He was about
forty years old, tall and athletic; about six feet high in his moc-
casins, with a large, well-developed head, aquiline nose, thin com-
pressed lips, and physiognomy beaming with intelligence and
resolution. He was clad in the half-military, half-Indian costume
of the Dakota chiefs. He was seated in the council-room without
greeting or salutation from any one. In a few minutes the gov-
ernor, turning to the chief in the midst of a breathless silence, by
the aid of an interpreter, opened the council.

Governor Ramsey asked : " What excuse have you for not com-
ing to the council when I sent for you ? "

The chief rose to his feet with native grace and dignity, his
blanket falling from his shoulders, and purposely dropping the
pipe of peace, he stood erect before the governor with Ms arms
folded, and right hand pressed on the sheath of his scalping-
knif e ; with firm voice he replied :

" I started to come, but your braves drove me back."

Gov. " What excuse have you for not coming the second time
I sent for you ? "

Red Iron. " No other excuse than I have given you."

Gov. " At the treaty I thought you a good man, but since you

390 APPENDIX.

have acted badly, and I am disposed to break you. I do break
you."

Red Iron. ' l You break me 1 My people made me a chief. My
people love me. I will still be their chief. I have done nothing
wrong."

Gov. "Why did you get your braves together and march around
here for the purpose of intimidating other chiefs, and prevent
their coming to the council ? "

Red Iron. " I did not get my braves together, they got together
themselves to prevent boys going to council to be made chiefs,
to sign papers, and to prevent single chiefs going to council at
night, to be bribed to sign papers for money we have never got.
We have heard how the Medewakantons were served at Mendota;
that by secret councils you got their names on paper, and took
away their money. We don't want to be served so. My braves
wanted to come to council in the daytime, when the sun shines,
and we want no councils in the dark. We want all our people
to go to council together, so that we can all know what is done."

Gov. " Why did you attempt to come to council with your
braves, when I had forbidden your braves coming to council?"

Red Iron. " You invited the chiefs only, and would not let the
braves conie too. This is not the way we have been treated be-
fore; this is not according to our customs, for among Dakotas
chiefs and braves go to council together. When you first sent
for us, there were two or three chiefs here, and we wanted to
wait till the rest would come, that we might all be in council to-
gether and know what was done, and so that we might all under-
stand the papers, and know what we were signing. When we
signed the treaty the traders threw a blanket over our faces and
darkened our eyes, and made us sign papers which we did not
understand, and which were not explained or read to us. We
want our Great Father at Washington to know what has been
done."

Gov. " Your Great Father has sent me to represent him, and
what I say is what he says. He wants you to pay your old debts,
in accordance with the paper you signed when the treaty was
made, and to leave that money in my hands to pay these debts.
If you refuse to do that I will take the money back."

Red Iron. " You can take the money back. We sold our land
to you, and you promised to pay us. If you don't give us the
money I will be glad, and all our people will be glad, for we will
have our land back if you don't give us the money. That paper

APPENDIX. 391

was not interpreted or explained to us. We are told it gives
about 300 boxes ($300,000) of our money to some of the traders.
We don't think we owe them so much. We want to pay all our
debts. We want our Great Father to send three good men here
to tell us how much we do owe, and whatever they say we will
pay; and that 's what all these braves say. Our chiefs and all our
people say this. * ' All the Indians present responded, c * Ho I ho ! ' '

Gov. " That can't be done. You owe more than your money
will pay, and I am ready now to pay your annuity, and no more ;
and when you are ready to receive it, the agent will pay you."

Red Iron. et We will receive our annuity, but we will sign no
papers for anything else. The snow is on the ground, and we
have been waiting a long time to get our money. We are poor;
you have plenty. Your fires are warm. Your tepees keep out the
cold: We have nothing to eat. We have been waiting a long
time for our moneys. Our hunting-season is past. A great many
of our people are sick, for being hungry. We may die because
you won't pay us. We may die, but if we do we will leave our
bones on the ground, that our Great Father may see where his
Dakota children died. We are very poor. We have sold our
hunting-grounds and the graves of our fathers. We have sold
our own graves. We have no place to bury our dead, and you
will not pay us the money for our lands."

The council was broken up, and Red Iron was sent to the guard-
house, where he was kept till next day. Between thirty and
forty of the braves of Red Iron's band were present during this
arrangement before the governor. When he was led away, they
departed in sullen silence, headed by Lean Bear, to a spot a quar-
ter of a mile from the council-house, where they uttered a suc-
cession of yells — the gathering signal of the Dakotas. Ere the
echoes died away, Indians were hurrying from their tepees to-
ward them, prepared for battle. They proceeded to the eminence
near the camp, where mouldered the bones of many warriors.
It was the memorable battle-ground, where their ancestors had
fought, in a conflict like Waterloo, the warlike Sacs and Foxes,
thereby preserving their lands and nationality. Upon this field
stood two hundred resolute warriors ready to do battle for their
hereditary chief. Lean Bear, the principal brave of Red Iron's
band, was a large, resolute man, about thirty-five years of age,
and had great influence in his nation.

Here, on their old battle-ground, Lean Bear recounted the
brave deeds of Red Iron, the long list of wrongs inflicted on the

392 APPENDIX

Indians by the white men, and proposed to the braves that they
should make a general attack on the whites. By the influence
of some of the half-breeds, and of white men who were known
to be friendly to them, Lean Bear was induced to abandon his
scheme ; and finally, the tribe, being starving, consented to give
up their lands and accept the sum of money offered to them.

" Over $55,000 of this treaty money, paid for debts of the
Indians, went to one Hugh Tyler, a stranger in the country,
'for getting the treaties through the Senate, and for necessaiy
disbursements in securing the assent of the chiefs.' "

Five years later another trader, under the pretence that he was
going to get back for them some of this stolen treaty money, ob-
tained their signature to vouchers, by means of which he cheated
them out of $12,000 more. At this same time he obtained a
payment of $4,500 for goods he said they had stolen from him.
Another man was allowed a claim of $5,000 for horses he said
they had stolen from him.

" In 1858 the chiefs were taken to Washington, and agreed to
the treaties for the cession of all then: reservation north of the
Minnesota River, under which, as ratified by the Senate, they
were to have $166,000 ; but of this amount they never received
one penny till four years afterward, when $15,000 in goods were
sent to the Lower Sioux, and these were deducted out of what was
due them under former treaties." — History of the Sioux War, by
ISAAC V. D. HEARD.

This paragraph gives the causes of the fearful Minnesota mas-
sacre, in which eight hundred people lost their lives.

The treaty expressly provided that no claims against the In-
dians should be paid unless approved by the Indians in open
council. No such council was held. A